Tropic Thunder
by A-LionGleek
Summary: A simple search and report in Africa becomes far more dramatic than expected when the Titans receive word of Professor Chang having managed to create an even more deadly genetically modified version of an already lethal virus. But things get worse still when Beast Boy finds himself both struggling to control his more beastly side and facing his past...in more ways than one.
1. Prologue

**Hey dudes and dudettes! Hope you're all ready for yet more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because now's the time I proudly present the beginning of the next 'episode' of the A-LionGleek style Teen Titans season 6! And this one, if my opening greeting for this here note (among other things) didn't make it obvious, this one will give some serious love for our favorite green shapeshifter! Sound worth a read? I certainly hope so! At this time, here's hoping you read, review, and enjoy the beginning of this new story!**

**A/N: But first, let it be known that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. That out of the way, enjoy the show dudes!**

**Prologue:**

It was the sound of a loud, and seemingly quite agonized, high pitched scream, followed by a pounding THUD, that awoke Raven. She snapped upright in her bed; her purple eyes widened.

"Beast Boy."

She hurriedly got up from her bed, forgetting in her current panic and haste that she could use her powers to reach her green teammate much faster. She exited her room…and ended up bumping right into Robin in the process. With some discomforted grunts and hisses, the two Titans collapsed into a tangled heap.

"Nice to see you're up to," Robin grumbled.

"Sorry," said Raven.

They managed to get back up on their feet.

"What got you awake?" Robin asked.

Raven raised her eyebrow, clearly annoyed at having to further delay her attempts to reach Beast Boy. "I could ask you the same question."

Robin thought to himself, and then nodded. "Fair point. I was already up trying to do some research on the computer to see if I could figure out where that 'Master' who controlled Geo-Force and set Adonis on you last month had gotten to." He looked back to Raven. "You?"

"I was just about to check on Beast Boy."

Robin raised his eyebrow. "You mean because of that scream and thud earlier? Sounds to me like he just fell out of bed."

"Is everything the alright?"

"Yeah man, I heard somebody screaming and falling."

Robin and Raven turned their heads in time to see Starfire and Cyborg come to a stop in the same hallway as them, clearly concerned.

"We're alright," said Raven. She nodded her head. "But right now, I have a feeling Beast Boy might not be."

"Guys, he's fine," Robin stated, sounding insistent, and almost certainly as if he'd rather get back to his earlier research. "It sounds to me like he just fell out of bed. I really don't think that's any reason to put up a big fuss…"

"NO! PLEASE! STOP! GGGGAAAHHH!"

The eyes of all four Titans present promptly widened. _That_ didn't sound good.

"That doesn't sound like he's fine," said Cyborg.

"Agreed," Robin promptly stated.

As one, they all rushed over to Beast Boy's room.

The door opened upon detecting their presence, and their eyes widened at the sight of their green teammate, still fast asleep, yet writhing around on the floor shrieking and howling with his hands clenched around the sides of his head.

"NO!" He yelled. "NOT THAT! ANYTHING BUT THAT! NO!"

As he yelled that last word, he suddenly convulsed as if being electrocuted.

"Friends!" Starfire yelled, clearly alarmed. "What is happening to friend Beast Boy?"

"Maybe he's having a nightmare?" Robin suggested.

"Must be a pretty nasty one if he's acting like this," Cyborg said.

"Uncle, please…AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

"We need to wake him up," said Raven.

"No need to tell me twice!" Cyborg yelled.

The four awakened Titans rushed into Beast Boy's room, eager to wake their changeling friend from his clearly quite horrifying nightmare. However, as it soon turned out, successfully waking him up would prove just the slightest bit more difficult than expected. Starfire was just about to touch him after getting on her knees to his right when he abruptly swung his left hand at her, claws at the ready to slice.

Starfire squeaked, and jumped back in time to avoid getting slashed, the changeling's clawed fingernails jabbing into the carpet of his room and leaving gashes across the floor. The changeling hissed and shrieked, clearly still reacting violently to whatever he was experiencing in his nightmare as he swung his clawed hands around.

"Yo!" Cyborg yelled, hurriedly getting into position to his friend's left. "Calm down man…"

Beast Boy abruptly bit Cyborg on the arm. And surprisingly enough, his teeth actually managed to sink into the metallic surface. Cyborg's human eye widened. "What the?!"

Electricity burst from where Beast Boy's teeth had chomped into Cyborg's arm, zapping him. This seemed to only make things worse, as he then shrieked in agony as if he'd been electrocuted in his dream at the exact same time he'd been electrocuted outside of the dream.

But fortunately, Starfire managed to grab onto his right arm as this happened, and Cyborg managed to firmly, but gently, grip onto Beast Boy's left arm immediately after his own left arm was no longer serving as a pin cushion for the changeling's teeth. Robin, meanwhile, managed to get ahold of Beast Boy's legs when he started trying to kick out with them. Unfortunately, the feeling of his limbs being gripped seemed to coincide with an event in his dream, as he started writhing and thrashing even more. "NO! NO! PLEASE! STOP! DON'T DO THIS! NO! GAH!"

"Raven!" Robin yelled, eager to get this whole mess resolved as soon as possible. "See if you can wake him up!"

"And hurry up with it please," Cyborg yelled, wincing as Beast Boy's clawed fingernails briefly squirmed dangerously close to Cyborg's wrists. "The sooner I can get my hands away from those claws of his, the better."

"Agreed," Starfire whimpered, noticeably much more worried about getting her wrists sliced by her friend's claws on account of being completely made of flesh as opposed to mostly of metal like Cyborg.

"EYAGH!"

That agonized shriek, combined with the worried looks on the rest of her friends' faces, was enough to snap Raven into action. She levitated into position right behind where Beast Boy's head was positioned, her hands glowing with shadowy energy in preparation for using her powers. She lowered herself onto her knees where she wished to be positioned, whispered her mantra, and then placed her hands against the sides of the shapeshifter's head.

"MREOW!" Beast Boy screeched, snapping his teeth and thrashing against the other Titans' grips as the presence of Raven's power in his mind combined with the events already going on in his dream caused him to instinctively try to lash out.

"THIS IS YOUR IDEA?!" Cyborg yelled, clearly thinking that Raven was only making things worse.

"I do hope you are the knowing of what you are doing," Starfire whimpered.

"Watch it now Raven!" Robin yelled, just barely managing to rear his head back in time to avoid getting pounded in the chin by Beast Boy's feet.

"Uncle…please…stop…GAH!"

"Beast Boy!" Raven yelled, pouring as much of her shadowy power as possible into Beast Boy's mind in her effort to get him to wake up from his devastating nightmare. "Beast Boy wake up!"

"RARGH!" Beast Boy roared, gnashing his teeth violently and very nearly nicking Raven's fingers with his fangs at one point.

"Wake up!"

"GOAR!" The changeling growled, clearly still not quite fully free from his nightmare.

"WAKE UP!"

The abrupt surge of power that resulted from Raven's shouting was enough to _finally_ achieve the desired result. Beast Boy's eyes snapped open, and he gasped and panted in a mixture of shock and terror. For several minutes, the Titans remained as they were, with Beast Boy gasping and heaving from _finally_ waking up from his terrible nightmare while still being tightly gripped by his friends.

"Beast Boy," Raven managed to say while still leaning over and looking into his face. "Are you ok?"

Beast Boy panted and gasped for a few minutes, still too breathless and exhausted from the ordeal he'd just gone through to immediately answer. But then he managed to take a proper breath, and nod his head. "I am." He winced. "Or, I will be." He looked at the other three Titans, his eyebrows now raised. "Um dudes? Could you put me down?"

Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire looked at each other, and then at Beast Boy.

"Right, of course," Robin stated as he gently lowered Beast Boy's feet to the floor, Cyborg and Starfire doing the same with the changeling's arms.

"Thanks," Beast Boy said once his friends had lowered him down and let go of him.

"You're welcome buddy," said Cyborg.

"What happened?" Starfire asked. "In your dream I mean?"

Beast Boy seemed to briefly wince, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, clearly discomforted. "Can…can I talk about that later? I literally just escaped from it."

Starfire and Raven narrowed their eyebrows, both of them appearing to very strongly wish for him to get it out and over with. But Cyborg and Robin shook their heads, indicating for their friends to be patient. After all, sometimes people needed time to adequately prepare for dealing with unpleasant situations, and the best they themselves could do was to respect Beast Boy's wishes. The two girl Titans took a deep breath, and then exhaled.

"If you say so Beast Boy," said Raven.

But even as she said this, she had a feeling that, sooner or later, Beast Boy would very much need to talk to her and the others about just what they'd woken him up from. Little did she and the other Titans realize, however, just how soon they would find out the answer to this question.

**And just like that, the story begins! And with QUITE an electrifying start to! How shall things unfold from here? Hope you're all willing to find out, because all I need to allow the first step to finding out (aka. the next chapter) to be posted is a bare minimum of 1 review being posted for this here prologue. All that in mind, hope you enjoyed, leave plenty of feedback, and are willing and eager to see more!**

**Coming up Next: The very next morning, the rest of the founding titans work to do their best to keep things for their changeling friend after his unpleasant dream from the previous night, while also wondering just how much possibly quite serious stuff from his past might have been affecting him all this time without their even knowing. And when they soon end up called to go on a mission later that same morning, little to they realize just how soon they'll end up finding out the answers to all their newly surfaced questions.**


	2. A Distress Call to Africa

**Hey everyone! Hope you're ready for more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because here's a new chapter! In this chapter, we return to Titans Tower the morning immediately after our favorite shapeshifter's unfortunate nightmare. How shall things unfold? Find out now! Here's hoping you have a happy time reading, and leave plenty of feedback.**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you again that I own nothing related to Teen Titans or DC comics. And that out of the way, onward we go!**

**Chapter 1:**

**A Distress Call to Africa**

"I truly hope that we made the right decision."

Robin, Cyborg, and Raven all turned their heads to face Starfire as she sat at the kitchen island. It was the morning after their work in waking up Beast Boy from his nightmare, and they were all currently gathered at the kitchen for breakfast. And as Starfire had now pointed out, she was still very much uncertain whether they'd made the right choice in letting Beast Boy keep the dream's subject matter to himself and wait till later to talk about it.

Robin sighed, and shook his head to side, briefly lowering his newspaper and coffee mug in the process. "I understand that it's hardly ideal. But sometimes, you just have to wait. Whatever it was that Beast Boy was dreaming about last night was clearly not a lot of fun to go through. And if he doesn't want to talk about it yet, then the best we can do right now is to respect his wishes."

"Yeah," Cyborg agreed, pausing in his cooking to join in on the current conversation. "Like Rob said, the grass stain would much rather wait. And if what he was dreaming about was really as bad as he made it out to be, then it's entirely likely we'd just make things worse if we were to try to force him to talk about it when he doesn't yet feel ready to do so willingly."

Raven sighed. "I suppose that's true," she grudgingly admitted before shaking her head. "It just, doesn't feel right to let him bottle things up like this."

"Don't you bottle up your own emotions all the time?" Robin asked, genuinely curious as to the seemingly hypocritical statement Raven had just made.

"That's different," Raven patiently responded. "My powers are of a nature where I have no other choice _but_ to keep my emotions under control. And note, I said, keep my emotions under control, not bottle them up. I can feel them, I just have to be subdued in the way I express them. And I can express them a little bit less subdued every now and then more often now than before my father's attempted apocalypse two years ago. But Beast Boy? He's just straight up bottling things up. And considering how much more open he's been with broadcasting his emotions since Valentine's Day, the fact that he's still bottling things up honestly worries me."

"What could he possibly be hiding though?" Starfire asked. "He's usually always so happy and be the lucky."

"Don't you mean happy go lucky?" Cyborg asked in confusion.

Starfire raised her eyebrow. "Isn't that not what I said?"

"That doesn't mean everything about him is like that."

The other Titans looked to Robin, who nodded his head. "Sometimes there are people with very unpleasant lives or pasts who try to hide the fact behind the image of being a happy go lucky jokester. There were several clowns I once knew who were like that. For all we know, maybe there's something seriously messed up that happened to him back when he was young, and he's been constantly trying to get away from it by joking around and acting the way he's been doing since the day we all first met." He then paused, and hung his head. "And if that's the case, I honestly feel bad now that I didn't guess as much sooner."

"Well if your current theory is correct," Cyborg began. "Then it must have been something _really_ bad for it to still affect him even now." He shook his head. "And in that case, we'll almost certainly need to wait a good long while before he's even close to willing to talk about it."

As he said this, however, Robin and the girls were looking very worriedly behind him.

"Um, Cyborg?" Robin asked.

"Yes?"

"Pardon me friend," said Starfire. "But perhaps, while we're waiting, you could ensure that we don't lose our breakfast?"

"Huh?" Cyborg asked briefly confused. But then he heard an especially loud sizzling, and his eye widened. "OH!" He hurriedly got back to the stove, _just_ in time to get the eggs and sausage patties taken care of before they could burn.

"Phew," Cyborg whistled, relieved that he'd been able to prevent the breakfast he was cooking from burning. "That was close."

Raven raised her eyebrow. "You think?"

Cyborg got the food divided into sufficient portions for himself and the other three Titans present, passing the plates to the appropriate spots. "Well, here we go. Breakfast is served."

"You got any for me?"

The Titans looked towards the entrance to the common room in time to see none other than Beast Boy standing nearby.

Cyborg winced, looked over at all the food he'd just finished cooking for himself and everyone but Beast Boy. "Sorry buddy," he said. "I thought you were still asleep. I can still cook something up really quick for you if you want though."

"Oh it's ok," said Beast Boy in a nonchalant manner. "I was just wondering. I'll just heat up some leftovers. I've got a nice bunch of those."

Sure enough, when he opened the fridge, there was a nice supply of left over tofu bacon and tofu eggs for him to eat. He got them out, prepared a serving of both, and then also drew out some tofu cereal and soymilk before heading over to the microwave to heat up his serving of tofu bacon and eggs.

The other Titans all silently looked each other in the eyes as Beast Boy prepared his breakfast. As much as he currently appeared to be acting as if everything was just fine, they had a feeling that he was only putting up a front. Yet at the same time, they were also quite certain that he'd only tense up and guard himself further if they tried to bring up his nightmare. Cyborg and the girls eventually all looked to Robin, who thought to himself, and then nodded. He gestured with his hand as if to signal for them to get down. "Lay low," he whispered, trying as hard as he could to avoid being overheard by Beast Boy. The other three Titans nodded their heads. Basically, Robin now meant that they would keep the whole nightmare incident to themselves and continue to give Beast Boy time to get comfortable and recover from the previous night.

Beast Boy finished preparing his breakfast, and then took a seat in between Cyborg and Raven. He took a bite of his cereal, and then a bite out of his tofu eggs. He was just about to grab one of his tofu bacon strips when he seemed to think to himself. He abruptly moved his plate of tofu bacon towards Cyborg.

"Cyborg!" Beast Boy yelled enthusiastically. "Want some tofu bacon? It's 100% meat free!"

In that instant, Cyborg briefly looked Raven in the eyes, and they both found very slight smirks forming on their faces as they thought of just the thing for them to do that, while seemingly quite mean on surface level, would no doubt help Beast Boy feel somewhat comfortable with a familiar routine after the previous night's terrible nightmare.

"Don't mind if I do," Cyborg said as he grabbed onto one of the tofu bacon strips. Beast Boy, completely caught off guard by Cyborg unexpectedly saying yes this time, didn't even notice his half robot best friend lift the bacon strip to his mouth…but the sight of said bacon strip flying right past his face and landing in the trash can located next to the opposite end of the kitchen island was enough to instantly knock him out of his trance.

"What the?!" Beast Boy yelled as he reflexively looked in the direction of the trash can.

"Another please."

Beast Boy looked back at Cyborg just in time to see him take another strip of tofu bacon from the plate, before then tossing _that_ strip into the trash can.

"Dude!" Beast Boy yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"What's it look like?" Cyborg asked nonchalantly. "I'm just making sure no one has to eat this."

At this point, Starfire and Robin had to fight with all their willpower to avoid giggling at what was now happening.

Beast Boy glowered, and then hurriedly snatched the bacon plate out of Cyborg's reach, pushing it unwittingly towards Raven in the process. "No more for you!" Beast Boy yelled.

"I want one."

Beast Boy had just enough for his eyes to widen upon hearing Raven's voice behind him before then turning his head in time to see her lift a strip of the tofu bacon off the plate with her powers before then casting it into the trash can. The changeling shrieked in half irritation and half shock, at which point Cyborg and Robin burst out laughing, and Starfire started giggling with her eyes closed and her right hand slapped across her own mouth in a futile effort to stifle the giggling.

Desperate to avoid getting robbed of his entire breakfast in this fashion, the changeling hurriedly bunched his plate of bacon, and the two bowls containing his tofu eggs and tofu cereal, together in front of him before then turning into an octopus and using his tentacles to hide the vegan friendly breakfast from his friends' view. At this point, he then directed a clear 'no more for you' glare at all four of them.

"Real mature buddy," Cyborg droned in a deadpan voice without missing a beat.

This response earned him a narrow eyed death glare from the green octopus.

"So, business as usual today huh?" Robin asked.

"Hit the nail right on the head," Raven droned.

"Got that right," said Cyborg, who then chuckled.

Beast Boy, still in octopus mode, promptly rolled his eyes, and then directed a half irritated and half grudgingly respectful look towards Robin, a clear 'well played' look in his eyes as he realized just what it was that had been planned behind Cyborg and Raven's latest chosen method of giving him grief during the usual 'meat vs tofu war' breakfast ritual. As much as he _really_ would have preferred not to have part of his breakfast thrown into the garbage, he could nonetheless grudgingly appreciate his friends' effort at allowing him to experience a fair amount of normalcy this morning after the previous night's incident for the sake of respecting his wishes to wait a little while before going into detail on his nightmare. Nonetheless, he chose to wait another couple minutes before daring to uncover his breakfast and revert back to human form. And even after that, he was very quick to finish eating his breakfast, a fact that did not escape Cyborg's attention.

"Want some air to go with your food?" Cyborg asked playfully.

Beast Boy, surprisingly enough, chose to ignore Cyborg this time.

Once all the Titans had finished their breakfast, Robin was quick to clap his hands and announce the immediate plan on what to do next.

"Alright everyone," he stated. "Training in 10 minutes."

At this point, Beast Boy's ears drooped. "You are trying _way_ too hard to maintain normalcy for me here," he thought to himself.

. . . . .

An hour later, the Titans reentered the common room after finally finishing their morning training session. Beast Boy, naturally, was lagging behind at the very back of the group, tongue hanging as he panted from all the effort he'd had to put in.

"Good work team," said Robin, already making his way over to the sofa and sitting down. "Very good job everyone."

"Easy…for you…to…say," Beast Boy panted. He landed against the back of the sofa, unconsciously turning into an emerald tree boa in the process before the entire front half of his snake form's body slid off the sofa and landed on the floor with the other half.

"Oh come on man," said Cyborg, himself seated in between Starfire and Raven on the sofa. "The way you're acting, one would think you'd been in a concentration camp…or on a boat."

Beast Boy's head, still in emerald tree boa form, very abruptly popped up from behind the sofa, an angry look on his face as he hissed savagely Cyborg's way.

"Right, right, sorry," Cyborg said, his hands extended in a placatory gesture towards his now rather angry best friend. "I forgot, you don't like me making jokes about that, sorry."

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes, gave one last warning hiss at Cyborg, and then very abruptly shifted back to human form before he then stormed over to the kitchen island, and prepared both a glass of orange juice and a small bowl of vanilla flavored soy ice cream before taking a seat and starting to very tensely get to work on consuming his snack.

The other Titans all looked each other in the eyes. Ever since the year they'd first met and teamed up, their shape shifter friend had always seemed particularly averse to boats, and especially to being made fun of over the matter. In fact, the whole thing had been made especially clear at one point during the first year of the Titans' existence in which Cyborg had resorted to teasing and making fun of Beast Boy over 'being afraid of boats' after the changeling had very pointedly refused to ride on the kiddy boat ride at the now closed pier-based amusement park, right up until the point that Beast Boy had punched Cyborg right in the power cell and very nearly clawed it right out before turning into a pteranodon and flying right back to the tower alone. And while the incident had since been forgiven and dropped in the years following, it had never been forgotten; and the other Titans now couldn't help but wonder today if perhaps Beast Boy's strong feelings and reactions about anything involving boats had roots in his past as well.

But then, right as Beast Boy was finally starting to finish his cool down snack, the television started flashing with an indication of an incoming call. This instantly got the Titans' attention, Beast Boy even going so far as to very quickly gobble up the last of his soy ice cream and slurp up the last of his orange juice so that he could properly pay attention to the message.

Robin accepted the call, and the television screen flickered before then clearing up to show the fact of none other than Red Star. "Greetings comrades," said the Russian born leader of Titans North. "I trust things are going well?"

"You could say that," said Robin. "Though I trust that there's something not going well behind you calling us?"

"Unfortunately true."

Red Star nodded his head. "Or at least, potentially true."

Cyborg raised his eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I shall explain."

Red Star directed his gaze towards the founding Titans, making sure he had all their attention. "Recently, Wildebeest went to investigate a case in Africa. Something about some rumors he'd heard about some sort of hidden lab being used as a site for illegal genetic experimentation."

"Why would he be interested in something like that?" Robin asked.

"According to what he told me and Pantha when we called to ask him about why he'd abruptly left without telling us and the rest of the team," Red Star explained. "It reportedly has ties to the organization responsible for creating him. And he wishes very strongly to prevent any other subsequent organizations from allowing others to be created and subjected to the same level of brutality as he himself was under that organization's care."

Beast Boy, unbeknownst to his fellow founders and Red Star, was gaping wide-eyed at the screen upon hearing these words about Wildebeest's origins. "Holy moly," the changeling thought to himself. "He and I have more in common than I thought!"

"Why are you calling us about this then?" Raven asked.

"We lost transmission with him yesterday," Red Star explained. "For some reason, all attempts at calling his communicator have started getting blocked and refusing to go through as of yesterday afternoon. Pantha and I would gladly bring all of Titans North over to Africa to help him ourselves, but the majority of us are too busy with a bunch of other stuff that's come on our plates recently. The only ones who are available to leave Wing City right now are Hotspot and Argent, and the only reason they haven't already headed off to check on Wildebeest is the fact that they personally recommended we ask you to do so instead."

"Why?" Starfire asked, genuinely curious behind why her friend from Russia had decided to take up Hotspot and Argent's offer to have her and the other founding Titans check on Wildebeest in their place.

"Because according to what they once heard Beast Boy mention to Jericho and Kole, Beast Boy in particular knows the area where this lab is reportedly located especially well, and works best when alongside you and the rest of the team's founders."

The other founding Titans all looked to Beast Boy. Seemingly in shock, the changeling tentatively stood up from where he'd been seated and walked up to where the other Titans were positioned. He came to a stop in front of his four fellow founders, staring intently at Red Star. "Red Star," he stated. "This lab Wildebeest went to investigate, where exactly in Africa is it supposed to be?"

"Lamumba," Red Star instantly responded. "The upper regions of it to be more specific."

Beast Boy gulped. Hotspot and Argent had been correct in what they'd heard. He indeed did know Lamumba well. _Very well_. In fact, the idea of going to that country again after all this time was something that both excited him and unnerved him at the same time.

"Are friends Hotspot and Argent correct Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy nodded. "Yes."

"In that case," Robin then stated, turning his head back to Red Star. "Would I be correct in presuming that Argent and Hotspot would perhaps be willing to stand in for us at Jump City while we go check on Wildebeest?"

"You are correct Komandir," Red Star replied.

"Very well then. Titans."

The Boy Wonder rammed his right fist into his left palm. "Get ready. We're going to Africa."

**And just like that, onward to Africa for the Titans! I'll admit, progress on solving the mystery and questions brought into existence in the prologue is slow. But the ball's definitely rolling. Hope you are happy with what I have to offer in this chapter and that you leave plenty of feedback. Remember, an exact minimum (and I do mean minimum) of one review is needed for this chapter in order to allow the next chapter (upon completion) to be released. See you next time everyone!**

**Coming up Next: The Titans arrive to upper Lamumba and start their search for Wildebeest...and end up having a rather beastly encounter with some local fantastical wildlife in the process.**


	3. A Beastly Welcome

**Ready for more? I certainly am! In this new chapter, the Titans arrive in Upper Lamumba to start their search for Wildebeest, and end up getting a rather unpleasant welcome from some particularly unique local wildlife. Sound exciting? Certainly hope so! Let's get reading dudes!**

**A/N: But first, I own nothing in this chapter. All copyrighted things present in this chapter are property of DC, Cartoon Network, and JK. Rowling (although in the latter case, with a few unique alterations). Onward with the fic!**

**Chapter 2:**

**A Beastly Welcome**

Beast Boy couldn't help but stare wistfully outside his window as the T-ship slowly started to descend towards a suitable landing spot upon the vast savannah several miles south of the jungles that comprised most of the country's upper region. "It's been a long time," he thought to himself, already feeling sentimental for long ago days of his childhood.

"You ok buddy?"

"Huh?" Beast Boy looked away from the outside of his window, briefly confused by the sudden voice. Then he realized that Cyborg had spoken to him through the ship's commlink system. "Oh, yeah. Sure dude. I'm good."

"You sure?" Cyborg asked, clearly concerned.

"You have been awfully quiet the entire trip," Raven agreed.

"Oh I'm alright," Beast Boy insisted. "It's just…been a while since I was last here."

"How exactly is it that you are so much the familiar with this place as friends Hotspot and Argent claim?" Starfire asked in curiosity.

"Simple."

Beast Boy looked back out the window of his compartment. "I used to live here."

Cyborg and the girls all looked at each other. They did remember that Beast Boy had mentioned the previous year something about interacting with a local tribe in Lamumba, but only now did they know that he'd outright actually _lived_ in this very country.

"How long?" Cyborg asked.

"Pretty long time actually," Beast Boy responded, seeing no problem with talking about this detail involving his past. "I was 8 when I finally returned to America from here." He shook his head side to side. "And as much as I've kind of missed this place, I've also honestly felt a little nervous about coming back as well."

"Why?" Starfire asked.

Beast Boy took a deep breath, exhaled, and then paused for a while, wincing and gritting his teeth as he struggled to figure out just what to say. "Well…," he shakily began.

"Brace yourselves team," said Robin. "We'll be touching the ground real soon, right at around the area where Red Star says Wildebeest was at the time of his last communication."

Beast Boy nodded. "We'll talk more about this later."

Cyborg and Starfire nodded, but Raven raised her eyebrows. She had a feeling that Beast Boy had been a little _too_ grateful for Robin's situational interruption.

The ship landed, and Robin flipped the switch that would open the five compartments. Once all five Titans had disembarked, the boy wonder drew out what looked like a remote, pointed it at the ship, and pressed a button. With a whir, and what looked like flashing of holographic imaging, the ship seemed to turn invisible.

Cyborg nodded his head. "Wise move."

"You've got that right."

Robin looked to Beast Boy and the girls. "I've activated the cloaking technology. As long as the solar and lunar based charging systems we installed while we were in Tokyo work, the ship should stay hidden until I press the button designed to deactivate it. And this same remote also contains a tracking system connected to the ship's own radar and GPS systems so that we'll be able to find it once it's time to leave."

"Why are we hiding the ship?" Starfire asked.

"To avoid ruffling the locals' feathers."

The other Titans all looked to Beast Boy, who nodded his head. "Lamumba follows some immensely isolationist policies when it comes to their interactions with the rest of the world. Kind of like an even _less_ tolerant version of Wakanda. As I can attest from my own experiences as a child, this country does allow some very limited tourism, and will also allow people from other countries to spend an indefinite amount of time here as long as they have the correct and up to date paperwork. Not to mention, the ones that still live the ancient tribalistic ways are much more friendly than the natives that have modernized. But despite that, they're not part of the UN. And if we're not careful in how we handle things here, we could easily end up causing an awkward incident."

"Exactly." Robin nodded his head. "As likely as it is for us to end up getting up to some shenanigans depending on just what Wildebeest has gotten himself into, the less chances we allow of doing anything more than necessary, the better." He rammed his right fist into his left palm. "And now that we've got all that out of the way, let's move."

. . . . .

"Any sign of him on your scanners?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Nope. Still nothing yet."

Robin groaned, shaking his head side to side. An hour had passed now since the Titans' arrival in Lamumba, and so far they still hadn't yet made significant progress in their search for Wildebeest. This was clearly not looking like it would be a quick, open and shut, case. "Where could he be?" He thought to himself.

At the sound of rustling grass nearby, Robin and Cyborg looked in the direction of the noise with an alert look on their faces, only to promptly relax when a green African Wild Dog came out of the grass and reverted back to human form.

"Any luck?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Sorry dude, but Wildebeest hasn't been here. And even if I were able to find any wildebeest scents amongst all the other animal scents in the area, there'd have been just as much of a chance of the scent belonging to an actual wildebeest as to our friend here."

Robin groaned, and pinched his nose. "This is insane," he grumbled.

The boy wonder's communicator went off, and he reflexively answered. "This is Robin," he stated.

"Robin?" Starfire's voice asked from the other end of the communication line. "Is everything the ok?"

"We're good," the teen caped crusader responded. "How's everything on you and Raven's end?"

"We're good," Raven responded. "But before you ask, no we have not found Wildebeest yet."

"No sign of him?" Robin asked.

"None," the half demoness confirmed.

"What should we do?" Starfire asked.

"Keep searching the area for another few minutes," Robin responded. "And then meet back up with me and the others at our current coordinates. I'll be sending them to you once this call's over. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and I will go ahead and set up a basecamp here as well while we're waiting."

Beast Boy tensed up, ears straight up, and eyes widened. He then turned to face Robin, finger pointing almost accusingly at the boy wonder. "CANCEL THAT ORDER!"

Cyborg's eyes widened, and Robin glared.

"Excuse me?"

"This is a game trail Robin. Carnivores _hunt_ on game trails. What are you trying to set up here? Basecamp, or a buffet?"

At this, Cyborg and Robin looked each other in the eyes, considering what the changeling had just said. Then Robin lifted his communicator back to appropriate position to continue his talk with the girls. "Strike what I said earlier," he stated, evidently realizing that Beast Boy had a valid point. "The rest of the boys and I will be looking for another spot to set up camp. We'll send you the coordinates for this alternate campsite once we've found it."

. . . . .

"You sure it wouldn't have made more sense to set up camp at the same place we left the T-ship?"

"I thought that would leave too much of a higher risk of attracting unwanted attention from the locals. Though I will admit, at this point I can definitely see the appeal in allowing for that necessary evil by setting up camp back at the ship."

At this point, half an hour had passed, and the three boy titans were now at the edge of a jungle. Beast Boy, ironically enough, was the _least_ tired of the three. The changeling whistled, and shook his head side to side with a cheeky grin on his face. "High temperatures sure work wonders on your thought process I see."

"Easy for you to say," Cyborg grumbled. The half robot boy directed a withering glare his green friend's way. "Man, how the heck are you not sweating up a storm like Rob and me? It's hot as Hell out here!"

"Hello? Used to live here."

Beast Boy nodded his head. "Trust me, I'd need to be in an _extra_ hot place to be in the same state as you two right now."

"Yeesh, rub it in," Robin grumbled sarcastically.

"Want a ride back to the ship?"

Beast Boy, cheeky grin still on his face immediately after saying this, morphed into an elephant, an almost smug trumpeting noise being emitted from the green pachyderm as he lifted his trunk upwards.

"Don't mind if I do."

Robin and Beast Boy looked to Cyborg, who was now extending his arm as if willing to get lifted up onto Beast Boy's back, clearly not too proud to be carried back to the ship now that Beast Boy was seemingly so willingly offering to do so. Beast Boy promptly obliged, wrapping his trunk around Cyborg and lifting him onto his back. He extended his trunk to Robin immediately after Cyborg had been successfully placed upon his back. The boy wonder glowered at the green elephant, clearly loath to sacrifice his pride by accepting a ride back home instead of just sucking it up and walking home.

"Come on Robin," said Cyborg. "Don't be stupid. With Beast Boy carrying us, we'll make it to the ship in time to reach a much less life threatening temperature a heck of a lot faster. And besides, maintaining your own sense of pride ain't gonna do you much good if it gets you killed."

Robin grumbled, and reluctantly extended his hand for Beast Boy to grab onto with his trunk, at which point the boy wonder was lifted up to join Cyborg on the green elephant's back.

"I knew you'd see reason," said Cyborg.

"Just get it over with," Robin grumbled. He drew out his communicator, preparing to call Starfire and Raven.

"I was just starting to wonder when you'd decide to go back to the ship."

The boys looked up in time to see Raven and Starfire hovering right above them.

"How long have you been up there?" Robin asked.

"The long enough," Starfire responded.

Robin groaned, and Cyborg chuckled. "Need a nice band-aid for your pride?" The boy wonder responded with a silent glare towards the half robot.

The sound of growling split the air, causing the Titans to tense up, instantly alert.

"What was that?" Robin asked.

"Sounded like a…cat maybe?" Cyborg stated.

Beast Boy the elephant nodded.

The growling was heard again, indeed sounding oddly like some sort of big cat. And it soon turned out there was more than one. Robin and Cyborg prepared to hop of Beast Boy's back, the shapeshifter likewise preparing to battle while still remaining in his African elephant form while the girls started charging up their respective energy blasts.

"Get ready," said the boy wonder. "Things could soon get ugly."

The sound of rustling foliage was heard from right in front of the Titans, snarling and growling filling the air alongside the rustling. Then a large leopard-like beast lunged out of the jungle and landed right in front of Beast Boy. It roared, revealing jaws filled with a ridiculously large number of sharp teeth. The shapeshifter reflexively reared up, trumpeting in the process. Cyborg and Robin were only just barely able to hurriedly jump off his back in time to avoid losing balance and falling. The two boys landed, hurriedly preparing their weapons and pointing them in the direction of the beast.

The monster roared, its eyes blazing with rage as what appeared to be multiple furry bristles stood on end all over its back. The sight of these bristles, as well as its unnaturally large number of teeth and several other unusual details, was enough for Robin to narrow his eyes in half curiosity and half suspicion. "This is clearly not an ordinary leopard," he thought to himself.

For about a minute, the titans remained as they were, the unusual looking leopard-like beast snarling and growling idly from where it was currently crouched, its almost horn-like pointed ears lying flat against the back of its head.

"Why does it not attack?" Starfire asked.

Robin, however, soon pointed out another unnerving detail. "I'm a bit more worried about who thought it would be a good idea to keep it as a pet considering that collar I see around its neck."

The other Titans had just enough time to notice the collar around the beast's neck themselves when more growling filled the air, and the Titans looked back at the jungle entrance in time to see 6 more of the same beast lunge into position to join the one already present, each one having a collar on their neck just like it. The 7 vicious looking beasts growled, ears flattened, teeth bared, claws extended, and their unusually bristle tipped tails flailing side to side in a threatening fashion.

Cyborg couldn't help but give off a light whistle. "Man, those are some seriously messed up looking leopards."

"That's because they're not actually leopards."

The other Titans looked to Raven, who nodded her head. "They're nundus; and judging by their size, clearly juveniles."

"How big are adults?" Starfire asked, her curiosity briefly making her forget the current severity of the situation.

Raven gestured towards Beast Boy. "Same size as Beast Boy currently is."

"Yo! Hate to break up the girl talk here," said Cyborg. "But could somebody explain what the heck a nundu is?!"

"A giant predatory cat commonly found in eastern Africa," Raven explained. "Also one of the sacred animals of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, whose sacred places used to often be guarded by entire leaps of the now extinct Egyptian subspecies. In fact, they used to be referred to as Sekhmets for simplicity's sake, but then some modern mythozoologist thought it would be a genius idea to start calling them nundus instead after he saw how much their physical appearance reminded him of those giant leopard-like beasts from the Harry Potter books."

"Don't remember any giant leopards in those books," Cyborg stated, now clearly confused.

"They were described in a supplementary book," Raven explained.

"Very fascinating," Robin grunted curtly. He pointed at the 7 juvenile nundus standing before him and the other Titans. "Any idea why they're not already attacking?"

"They're probably waiting to see if we leave first."

The other Titans looked to Beast Boy, who had shifted back to human form and was now nodding his head. "Standard carnivore behavior. Assuming that those collars won't somehow make them behave differently from normal, they should stand down and leave us alone as long as we don't move any further towards them then we already are, don't make any sudden moves, and especially if we leave the area within the next few minutes."

"That's certainly starting to sound like a good idea," said Cyborg.

But Robin was now once again focused on the collars around the cats' necks. "If they're collared, there's a chance that they might be deliberately guarding something. And whoever collared them might have answers as to what's happened to Wildebeest." He rammed his right fist against his left palm. "Get ready team, we're gonna have to fight these things."

The boy wonder drew out a freeze disk and threw it at the nundus. The first one in the center of the group, easily recognizable by having mane-like tufts on the sides of its head considerably longer than the similar such tufts on its brethren, instantly responded with a burst of fire from its jaws, engulfing the disk-like weapon before it even had the chance to go off.

The Titans all gaped, wide-eyed, at the sight of this.

"Ok," said Beast Boy. "_That_ would have been nice to know about earlier."

The lead nundu roared, its six fellow nundus roaring in unison alongside it, all with an orange glow charging up in their jaws.

Robin swiftly recovered his composure. "TITANS GO!"

The Titans leapt aside in time to avoid getting blasted by the 7 jets of flame the 7 juvenile nundus fired at them. The storm of flames completely engulfed the grassy area that the Titans had been standing at, reducing the grass to ash.

Cyborg recovered quickly after his dodge, and he aimed his sonic cannon at one of the beasts. "Looks like somebody needs a timeout." He fired, causing the nundu that he hit to briefly stumble. But the creature recovered quickly, roared at Cyborg, and then pounced. "Oof!" Cyborg grunted as he was pinned to the ground by the lunging nundu.

Starfire remained airborne, grunting from effort as she launched starbolt after starbolt at the two nundus that had chosen to try to go after her. The bursts of green energy that managed to hit the beasts seemed to cause them pain, but still not so much that they couldn't shake it off. One of them lunged upwards at her, only for the Tamaranean princess to send it flying backward with a single swift kick to its jaw. The 2nd nundu chose to breath fire at Starfire while she was still distracted by its partner, leaving her forced to fly to the side to avoid getting roasted.

Robin jumped and flipped as he worked to dodge the various claw swipes, bites, and tail swings sent his way by the single nundu he was currently facing. "And I thought Selena Kyle was a tough cat," he thought to himself as he jumped to his right to avoid a snap of the beast's teeth, and then ducked to avoid getting hit in the face by the bristle covered tip of its tail.

He swiftly drew a smoke stick out of his utility belt while the nundu was still getting back into position from its tail swing. "Let's see if this gives me a little breathing room," he thought to himself before then throwing the stick into the beast's face. The nundu hissed and snarled as its vision was briefly obscured by the cloud of smoke that suddenly popped up in its face. It had just enough time to snarl in the direction the projectile responsible had come from as the cloud faded before it was then struck by a disk that exploded into a web of voltage upon impact.

"ROAR!"

The monster winced in discomfort, briefly stumbling from the painful current, distracted long enough for Robin to summon his sword. By the time the voltage web had worn off and the beast had returned its attention to Robin, the boy wonder was standing firm in a battle-ready position while pointing his sword straight at it. "You have your claws," Robin stated as he stared the nundu in the face. "I have my blade. Now we're even." The nundu snarled, and spat a ball of fire towards the boy wonder, who swiftly shielded himself with his cape. The resulting explosion of smoke was still very much in effect when Robin subsequently jumped and rolled to his left in time to avoid the beast's subsequent attempt to pounce on him.

Raven glared, brow furrowed, and eyes narrowed, from her position in the sky as the two nundus she was currently dealing with circled the ground beneath her. The beasts snarled, and swung their tails, and then breathed fire at her. Raven summoned a force field, the flames harmlessly pounding against the barrier before the beasts then lunged up and latched onto the sides of it once the flames had faded to smoke. The nundus roared, slashing ineffectively at the force field as they glared viciously at their target inside. But Raven wasn't going to let her beastly assailants stay in this position. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The force field exploded in a powerful shockwave of shadowy energy, sending the two supernatural big cats rocketing away.

The last of the 7 nundus roared and spewed fire threateningly at Beast Boy again and again as the shapeshifter darted in every direction he could to escape in his jackrabbit form. This lasted just long enough for the nundu to eventually get smart and lunge into position right in front of the changeling, forcing him to swiftly turn into an armadillo and curl up in time to get harmlessly smacked backwards through the air by the beast's subsequent paw swing instead of sliced to ribbons by its claws. The nundu snarled, and charged in the direction that Beast Boy had gone flying, pouncing the remainder of the way the instant the changeling's scent indicated he was close enough to be on the receiving end; only to then by sent flying aside by a swing of the large bludgeoned tail of Beast Boy's ankylosaurus form.

As it so happened, the very nundu that had been chasing after Beast Boy ended up slamming into the very same nundu that had been up against Cyborg, knocking it off of the half robot hero right as the beast was still fighting against Cyborg's efforts at preventing it from slicing him in half. Cyborg got back on his feet, already converting his right arm back into sonic cannon mode. "Thanks buddy," he said as he got up.

Beast Boy landed next to Cyborg in vulture mode before then briefly switching back to human form. "No problem dude."

The sound of roaring got the two boys' attention back to the nundus in time to see the two they themselves had been specifically facing already slowly making their way towards them again as if ready to pounce, snarling and slavering viciously. Cyborg pointed his cannon at the two beasts, Beast Boy shifting into a rhino and pawing the ground threateningly at the same time.

At the sound of a high pitched shriek heading towards them, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and the two nundus looked in time for a now slightly singed Starfire to land nearby. "You ok Star?" Cyborg asked. Then a similarly singed Raven landed right next to Beast Boy with a pained grunt.

"Ow," the sorceress groaned.

"Gah!"

The 4 titans looked in time for Robin to crash land right in front of them, his sword bouncing out of his hands and landing a foot to his left. The boy wonder snarled, and scrambled to his feet. "Darned tail," he growled.

The sound of snarling and growling attracted all the Titans' attention back to the nundus. At this point, all 7 had regrouped and were now glaring threateningly at their apparent hopeful prey…with their eyes now suddenly glowing solid red.

Cyborg noticed this. "Yo! Were those things' eyes red before?"

"Unfortunately, no." Raven shook her head. "when their eyes are like that, it means they're in a blood frenzy."

"That's never good," Robin grumbled.

The leader of the small leap of juvenile nundus roared, its teeth fully bared, and the interior of its mouth already starting to take on an orange glow. The rest of the nundus followed suit.

"Get ready team," said Robin. "Things are about to get rough."

A dead hippo suddenly landed right in front of the nundus, which promptly snapped upon and started messily tearing flesh off of the carcass while the Titans were still stunned and dumbfounded by the unexpected appearance of the carcass.

"Come on!"

At the sound of this somewhat child-like voice, the Titans looked to the jungle area just a few feet or so behind the nundus and to the right just in time to see a very familiar, and this time much more welcome, furry face; one that came with horns.

"Wildebeest?" Cyborg asked, a stunned look on his half metal face. "How did…when did you get here?!"

"And since when can you talk?" Beast Boy asked, at this point back in human form.

"No time to explain!"

The humanoid mutant bovine looked briefly back in the direction of the feasting nundus, and then right back at the founding Titans.

"Over here! Come on! That carcass I just threw won't keep those things distracted forever!"

"And go right in their territory?!" Beast Boy shrieked.

"Don't worry about that! I know a safe place we can hide from them!"

Wildebeest beckoned, now looking especially agitated and insistent. "Now come on! I promise I'll answer as many of your questions as I can later! But right now, less talking, more moving!"

"Do as he says," Raven quickly remarked.

"Agreed," said Starfire. "It would appear following friend Wildebeest's wishes is our best gamble."

"Well then let's hurry up like Wildebeest wants," said Cyborg. He pointed at the nundus. "Because it looks like it won't be much longer before those things finish eating!"

Sure enough, the nundus were now already past halfway finished eating the hippo carcass. This was enough to snap the founding Titans into rushing over to where Wildebeest was waiting.

"Follow me," said the animalistic Titan, his voice strangely still sounding like that of an elementary school aged child. "The more distance we make between us and those things before they've finished eating and the sooner we get to my current campsite, the better!"

At that point, the founding Titans really didn't feel in the mood to argue. And so they all followed their formerly missing beastly friend deep into the Lamumban jungle.

**And just like that, another chapter done! REALLY hope you enjoyed this one! And of course, I hope you read, enjoyed, and leave plenty of feedback (remember, an exact minimum of 1 review is required for this new chapter before I allow the next chapter (once complete) to be posted). Believe me, after this nice bit of action, I'm really looking forward to getting more of this story done! See you later dudes!**

**Coming up Next: With Wildebeest now found and confirmed safe, he and the founding Titans group together at the beastly honorary Titan's current homebase for this mission. But after a nice bit of chatting that ensues, the founding Titans are soon made aware of some stuff that Wildebeest has managed to learn in between the start of the radio silence from him and his current reunion with them...stuff that could yet prove very unpleasant in the near future.**


	4. In the Pen of the Wildebeest

**Hey there dudes! I'm back! Hope you're ready for more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because here I come with a new chapter! In this chapter, Wildebeest and the founding Titans are now very much safe from the juvenile nundus encountered earlier. And after a brief bit of time spent on sidetracked chatting, Wildebeest finally allows us to know some important details he figured out about in the time he's spent in Africa prior to his current reunion with the founders. Sound worth a read? I certainly hope so! And I also hope you read, enjoy, and review.**

**A/N: But first, quick reminder. I own nothing Teen Titans/DC comics based. Ok? Good. Onward with the fic dudes!**

**Chapter 3:**

**In the Pen of the Wildebeest**

"So. What do you think?"

The founding Titans all looked around the interior of the surprisingly well crafted false hill that Wildebeest was now using as his temporary home base within the jungle. It had now been two whole hours since Wildebeest had saved them from the nundu leap, and they were all still eager to get the explanation and answers Wildebeest had promised. But Wildebeest currently seemed rather childishly to have his mind now preoccupied on the matter of his little temporary camp, and they felt like they might as well humor him.

"I'll admit, looks like the work of a real professional," Robin said politely.

"That's certainly true," Cyborg said, only he actually meant it. He nodded his head up and down. "I could certainly see a professional in the military managing something like this."

"Well considering most of the time I don't spend in Florida with Titans South is with Titans North, it would only make sense that I'd pick up a trick or two from dad…er, Red Star."

The founding Titans all raised their eyebrows upon hearing this brief word slip.

"Weren't you created in a lab?" Robin asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I haven't started viewing certain people as my parents in the time since I left that lab," Wildebeest explained, now sounding quite eager to talk about this new apparent change of subject.

"In which case I suppose you've just already told us which of us you view as your father," said Raven.

"That means you consider Pantha your mother," said Starfire.

"Correct," said Wildebeest. "How'd you know?"

Starfire's four fellow founders also looked at Starfire in confusion and curiosity.

"Is it not the obvious?" Starfire asked. "Pantha has brought up multiple times how Wildebeest often calls her his mother."

The other founders thought to themselves, and then nodded in grudging admission to what Starfire had just said.

"Well this is embarrassing," said Robin.

"Huh," said Wildebeest. "I suppose I did make it pretty obvious."

"I can see she also appears to be your favorite parent," said Cyborg as he pointed at what appeared to a large heap of posters promoting Pantha's wrestling matches.

Wildebeest looked at the posters, and then back at Cyborg, a sheepish grin now on his face. "Heh, heh, I suppose I've made that pretty obvious to." He briefly looked back at the posters. "And for that matter, I'm still trying to decide whether or not I should temporarily hang up any of them on the walls of this place while I'm here."

At this point, Beast Boy _really_ couldn't help but make note of one little detail. "Dudes, am I seriously the only one who's wondering how he's suddenly able to talk?"

"It's because of this."

Beast Boy and the other founders looked to Wildebeest just in time to see the humanoid bovine point at a collar around his neck. "Cyborg helped design this for me while I was visiting you guys last month for Valentine's Day. Mom and dad figured it would probably be a lot easier if I had a way to communicate to people without needing someone to translate for me. And with Cyborg's help, this is the end result. Pretty nice huh?"

"And you sound like a 10-year old," Robin noted. "Why?"

"I designed it so that it would give him a voice that would most closely match his physical age," Cyborg explained.

"Good thing my mental age is the exact same as my physical age," Wildebeest chimed in.

"Wait a minute," said Beast Boy. He pointed at the humanoid wildebeest, now _really_ confused. "You're 10-years old?"

"Yep, and I turn 11 this summer!"

Wildebeest nodded his head, a giddy grin on his face as if that fact had been obvious. "You really didn't know?"

Four of the founding Titans looked at each other awkwardly. Beast Boy, however, was a little preoccupied on another matter.

"Let me get this straight," said the changeling. "If your birthday's in the summer, and you're currently 10, then that would mean…"

"Yep. I was 7 when we first met; and fought."

Cyborg instantly did a spit take. "Ha! Ha-ha! Ha!" He pointed at Beast Boy, still laughing. "You…you got your butt kicked…by a 2nd grader!"

Beast Boy glowered at his best friend. "Dude, come on."

"I'm serious man!"

Cyborg chuckled, shaking his head side to side in amusement. "Man, no wonder I was able to so easily defeat your evil clone two years ago. You lost a fight against a 2nd grader!"

"Dude, he's like several tons, and freakishly strong compared to the average 2nd grader; well technically 5th grader at this point, but you know what I mean!"

"He's right."

Wildebeest nodded. "And for the record, need I remind you that he was actually doing a pretty good job against me in our fight that year? Heck, he probably would have beaten me, or at least gone down less embarrassingly, if he hadn't turned into a t-rex; or if the cage we were fighting in had been a lot sturdier."

Cyborg glared. "Come on man, let me have my moment of fun."

Wildebeest raised his eyebrow in confusion. "I fail to see how mean spirited teasing counts as fun."

"Yep, you're definitely still a child," said Raven.

Wildebeest turned his confused gaze towards Raven. "Yes, we kinda already established that?"

"Don't mind all that."

Wildebeest looked to Robin, who was nodding his head. "I will say this though." He looked at the apparently _quite_ prepubescent honorary Titan. "Sorry if I hurt you too much when I fought you in the Master of Games' tournament. If I'd known you were 7 at the time, I probably would have held back a little more while fighting you."

"Oh come on," said Wildebeest, making a dismissive hand gesture in the process. "Look at me. You knew I could take it!"

"I understand that," said Robin. "But nonetheless, you're still a child. Though I'll freely admit, I never would have guessed that just by looking at you."

"Well I did used to look a lot closer to my age," Wildebeest admitted. He looked himself up and down. "I first got all muscled up and big like this over the course of a serious tantrum I had back at the Wildebeest Society labs when I was 5. And that same day just happened to be the day I managed to escape from those labs." He thought to himself. "That being said, I suppose you could say I never really figured out how to change back out of this form. But so far, staying like this hasn't hurt me, and nobody seems to have any problem with me staying like this, so I've never really felt any need to hurry in figuring that out."

"I'm sure you'll be a very dear member of the Titan family regardless of what form you're in," said Starfire.

Wildebeest smiled at the Tamaranean. "Thanks."

"Ok, anybody else getting the feeling we've gone a little off track here?"

"Oh yeah," Cyborg admitted. "Sorry man, but Raven's got a point. Weren't there some things you promised to explain to us earlier once we'd gotten away from those freak leopard things?"

"Oh yeah, right," Wildebeest stated, now seeming rather tense and awkward.

"Oh it's nothing against you buddy," said Cyborg. "It's just that, well, I'm sure that whatever it is you wanted to tell us is pretty darn important."

"Not to mention something I'm sure your mom and dad would very much like to know," said Robin. He nodded his head. "Especially after how you ended up going full radio silence on them two days ago."

"Hey, it's fine, I understand. I can get distracted pretty easily."

Wildebeest nodded his head. "But yes, probably about time I get serious."

He looked straight into Robin's masked eyes, a now much gruffer and more serious look on his face. "I'm sure you've already been told this by whoever it was that told you about my being here, but I came here to investigate some sort of hidden lab; a lab that, rumor has it, supposedly has ties to the Wildebeest Society."

"Red Star did mention all that," Robin admitted.

Wildebeest nodded. "Well, I haven't found the lab yet. But I do have reason to believe that it is somewhere in this jungle."

"How so?" Cyborg asked.

"Well for one thing, it did seem like a pretty obvious thing to guess when I happened to spot a group of those ghostbuster suit guys working for that weird Frankenstein scientist guy with red glasses operating that freeze machine that the Brotherhood of Bullies were using on us last year…"

"Professor Chang?!"

Robin tensed up. "He's here?!"

"Assuming the two of us are talking about the same person, yes."

"What were they doing?" Raven asked.

Wildebeest took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "I can't really say for certain what they were doing when I first saw them right outside the jungle. But I did manage to follow them far enough into the jungle to reach some sort of strange tower thing."

"Ok? Can you describe this 'tower thing' a little more?" Cyborg asked.

"Well, I'm not really sure if I can give you the best description. Those ghostbuster guys were using a lot of that big people techno talk you were using when helping mom and dad build my new collar."

"Anything you can say for sure you understood about what they said?" Robin asked.

"Um…well…they may have said something about…um…satellite blockage?"

"Satellite interference."

The other Titans all looked to Cyborg, who nodded. "Judging by that, this tower Wildebeest's just now mentioned is probably designed to give off some signal designed to help provide cloaking against satellite imaging."

Wildebeest raised his eyebrow. "What do coats have to do with towers and signals?"

"He means that the tower you saw is designed to hide something," Raven explained.

"Yeah, like that," Beast Boy agreed. He looked around. "Um, does this place come with a light switch or anything?"

The other founding Titans raised their eyebrows, but Wildebeest saw no harm in humoring Beast Boy.

"I brought a flashlight."

He drew out a large black flashlight from a nearby backpack, handing it over to Beast Boy afterward.

"Thanks dude." He lifted the flashlight into a vertical position, making sure that Wildebeest and the rest of the Titans were able to get a good look at it. "Ok, my machine knowledge isn't really all that good beyond the simple stuff, but I'll try my best to explain it further. For the sake of this discussion, let's pretend this flashlight is that tower you mentioned."

He pressed the on/off button, causing a beam of light to flash upon the ceiling of Wildebeest's makeshift 'camp'. "Alright, I just turned it on. Now, to continue the flashlight stuff, the 'light' given off by this tower is basically a little techno something designed to prevent everything within the area illuminated within its 'light' from being found by any forms of electronic tracking." He pointed at Cyborg. "Like Cyborg's scanners for instance." He looked at his best friend. "How am I doing?"

"Not bad buddy," said Cyborg.

Wildebeest thought to himself. "Hmm, I think I might be getting the basic idea now."

"That's good."

Robin nodded. "And assuming that this tower is indeed designed for what we're currently guessing, then Chang's definitely got something to hide going on in this jungle. Most likely that lab Wildebeest was looking for."

"Those ghostbuster guys definitely said something about a lab over the course of what I was able to hear them say before they left now that I think about it."

"Were you able to figure out where it is?" Cyborg asked.

"Well…not really."

"What do you mean?" Starfire asked.

"Well…"

Wildebeest thought to himself, seemingly trying to figure out how best to say what he was now about to talk about. Then he nodded. "Ok, from what I heard them saying, the tower wasn't active at the time. It had been turned off. Something about it causing too much interference at the time for something else they were trying to set up in the same area or something like that."

"Any idea what that other thing was?" Raven asked.

"Not really. They didn't really say much that could help me figure that out; or at least they didn't while I was there."

"But weren't you and Chang's assistants both there for the same amount of time?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well now that you mention it, I forgot to mention there was a 2nd group of those ghostbuster suit guys already there when the group I was following had arrived. That group was the one taking care of that other thing; whatever it was."

"I see," said Robin. "What else did you manage to overhear?"

"Not much else that I haven't already told you. But from what I heard them say not too long before they finished their work and left, they must have felt satisfied with what they'd gotten done, because they then called someone on some sort of communication device they had and said that it was ok to turn the tower back on before they then left."

"Did you see which way they went?" Robin asked.

"Sadly no. I was a little preoccupied with keeping my hands over my hears and trying to get the heck away from all that noise that the tower ended up making after it turned back on."

"Noise?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yea," Wildebeest stated. "Really uncomfortable one to. I could barely even hear myself think. Though from what little I managed to hear the ghostbuster guys say while I was still within earshot of them, it strangely didn't seem to affect them at all."

"They must have installed some sort of noise emitter," Cyborg guessed. "With the right frequency, certain sounds can be made that won't register on a human's sense of hearing, but will definitely register on most animals' senses of hearing, and be very uncomfortable for them to hear to. Must be something Chang felt necessary to install to make sure any local wildlife in the area didn't go messing around near that tower, or come too close to the lab."

"It was certainly enough to get me to leave the area."

Wildebeest nodded his head, now _really_ not looking happy with the memory of the aforementioned noise. "I eventually managed to get out of reach of that noise. But that was when I also found out the hard way about two other unpleasant details."

"What were those?" Starfire asked.

"Well for one thing, I ended up learning that that same noise that I'd just escaped from was also apparently keeping those freaky leopard things that apparently ended up getting hired for guard duty from going after me the instant I first stepped foot in this jungle. I had noticed while following those ghostbuster guys were carrying some sort of devices similar to those things that coaches shout through. That's probably something they were using to keep the guards from trying to attack them while the tower was off."

He shuddered, shaking his horned head side to side. "Took me almost two whole hours to shake them off my trail. And even then, I still made sure that I was still only about two or three yards from the point where I started hearing that noise all over again before setting up camp, just to be safe."

"And they haven't come anywhere near here?" Cyborg asked.

"Nope. Not at all. I guess maybe their sense of hearing is just the tiniest bit more sensitive than mine."

"Just be glad they were only juveniles," said Raven. "Fully grown adults are not only much bigger, but they can also breath poison gas as well as fire."

"Duly noted," Wildebeest grumbled.

"What was the other thing you found out the hard way?" Robin then asked. "You said there were two unpleasant details you found out in such a way."

"Oh yeah, that."

Wildebeest drew out his communicator and handed it to Robin. "Go ahead and try to call someone on this."

The founding Titans looked each other in the eyes, and then shrugged. Robin attempted to initiate a call; key word being attempted.

"Not going through?" Cyborg asked.

"Not going through." Robin looked at Cyborg. "And awkwardly enough, I was trying to contact _you_."

Wildebeest nodded. "Yep. I figured that out not too long after I finally escaped from those leopard things. I kept trying and trying to contact _someone_ else on this team for hours. No luck."

"The tracking interference signal from that tower must be interfering with the communication systems somehow," Cyborg guessed.

"That would explain the silence of the radio," said Starfire.

"And you didn't try to leave the jungle to see if it would have worked there?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well first, I had no way to know for certain that doing anything like that would have even worked. And secondly, every time I _did_ try to head out of the jungle, I kept on getting blocked and chased right back to my camp by those furry fire breathing guards I just saved you from."

Wildebeest shook his head again. "In fact, I was actually in the midst of trying to leave the jungle today, and having a much unexpectedly easier time doing so as well than usual, when I happened to notice that you guys were the reason those leopard things hadn't already blocked me off yet again like normal and that, naturally, all the time I'd spent carrying around that hippo carcass I happened to find near that river we crossed on the way here was completely worthwhile in the end after all."

"Well in that case, it's obvious what the next step on our agenda is."

Robin rammed his right fist against his left palm. "First thing we gotta do now is shut down that tower. Once it's down, we can call Titans North and South to let them know you're ok and also inform them of the current situation as we know it. And once Red Star and Pantha no longer have any immediate reason to worry about your lack of contact with them, we can help you put a stop to whatever it is that Chang is planning. And if anybody from this Society of Wildebeests happens to be involved and working with him, then we'll see if we can put a stop to them to."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Cyborg agreed.

"Indeed," Beast Boy whimpered. He was already starting to have a bad feeling that he'd end up being affected by the noise Wildebeest had mentioned just as much as the humanoid bovine himself had been.

"Agreed."

Wildebeest nodded. "But not right now."

Robin raised his eyebrow. "Why?"

"Look outside."

Beast Boy reflexively did just that, and his green eyes promptly widened. "Yowzers! It's already dark outside?!"

The other founding Titans swiftly joined Beast Boy in looking outside Wildebeest's 'camp'. Sure enough, it was indeed dark outside.

"What the…?" Cyborg said.

"Check your clocks," said Wildebeest.

The founding Titans did so.

"That time already?" Robin asked incredulously.

"Yep. It's that time already."

Wildebeest nodded his head. "And I don't know about you, but I'd very much rather not risk encountering those freaky leopard guards again in the dark. And even without them to worry about, I get the feeling from what dad's told me about you that you and your friends will be much more appreciative of going off to search for that tower tomorrow morning after we've had a nice long sleep for tonight, plus an appropriate breakfast tomorrow morning right before we set out, than if we were to try to go take out that tower right this very instant."

Cyborg whistled, and then nodded his head. "I will admit," he then said, turning his head to face Robin again in the process. "He ain't wrong."

Robin sighed. "Fine, we'll do it tomorrow. But I want this to be the first thing we do after breakfast ok? If stopping whatever it is Chang's working on out here is as difficult as I'm currently guessing it's going to be, the last thing I need is to worry about Red Star and Pantha giving me an earful over willingly keeping them in the dark on Wildebeest." He pointed right at Wildebeest. "_Especially_ now that I know that you're in fact still an elementary school-age child."

**And just like that, another chapter done. Yep, definitely on a roll now ^_^. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, or at least found it worth a read in the time that's no doubt still to unfold before we ****_really_**** start getting into the serious meat of this story. And please remember, I require an exact minimum of one review for this new chapter before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted. Hope you all read, enjoyed, and leave plenty of feedback. Because boy am I having fun! ^_^**

**Coming up Next: We briefly take a look at some of the stuff going on at this sinister hidden lab that everyone's getting so interested in.**


	5. All According to Plan

**Well what do you know everyone! I already have a new chapter ready! I must REALLY be on a roll! In this chapter, we take a brief break from our favorite DC teen heroes to get a taste of just what's currently going on at this oh so important laboratory. Sound perhaps worth a read? I sure hope so dudes!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you that I do not own anything Teen Titans/DC related. Get it? Got it? Good. Onward with the fic everyone!**

**Chapter 4:**

**All According to Plan**

Professor Chang's eyes were narrowed under his red tinted laboratory goggles as he listened to what his chief underling was currently telling him over the course of their conversation on their communicators. "You are certain that you've got it all set up as planned?"

The underling responded, and Chang's eyes promptly narrowed even more as a silent angry snarl formed on his face. "Don't get smart with me! You and the rest of the boys all know perfectly well how much is riding on this plan being successful!"

In the shadows of the hallway right outside the office the now apparently quite irked scientist was currently located, a much comparatively younger adult man chuckled, a smug smirk on his face. "He still fears me," he thought to himself as he watched the scientist. "Good. That means he'll put even more effort into ensuring that there's as little chance as possible of something going wrong."

He heard the scientist continuing to talk, and he continued to listen in. "I know you already checked a quarter of an hour ago, and I'm telling you to do so again right now! Our current benefactor has made it very clear that he doesn't want any easily avoided setbacks to occur! And I'd go ahead and make extra sure now that the current samples we have are still at ideal temperature if I were you so that there isn't heightened chances of you ending up just like Grossman!"

"Ah yes," the man in the shadows thought to himself, briefly touching a small pistol he had in a holster on the right side of his belt. "That one fool who almost got us all killed with his clumsiness."

"Just check it this one last time for tonight, ok?" Chang asked, clearly still annoyed. "If it's exactly the same as it was when you last checked, then you and the rest of the boys can go ahead and sign off for the night, ok?"

It was at this point that the man in the shadows decided he'd listened in long enough, and he set off towards his own personal 'office' right as Chang seemed to indicate in his words that the call to his underling was finally winding down and that the underling in question had agreed to the requested temperature check on the aforementioned 'samples'. As he walked through the darkened corridors leading to his current destination, he paid close attention to the sounds of various 'projects' and other activities being brought to desired stopping points before the 'scientists' working retired for the night. He chuckled to himself as he thought of the wizened old scientist and his goons that he currently had working with him in this lab…or more accurately, working _for_ him. And with quite a high degree of fear being directed his way from them to. And for good reason.

"I have them all in the palm of my hand," he thought to himself, a smug smirk coming onto his face. He rubbed his left palm confidently through his coal black hair with an air of smug pride radiating about him in the movement. "They'd gladly be willing to try literally _anything_ so long as I asked them to do so; what with how desperate they currently are."

He briefly looked over his shoulder in the direction from which he was currently departing. While he was more than willing to have an equal partnership with those he considered worthy of as much, he also had to admit that it felt rather enjoyable to be so high ranking over someone else as to inspire genuine fear. He looked back ahead, nodding his head once more.

"I could so easily just go ahead and betray them all," he whispered to himself, smirk still on his face. "A quick call to the authorities, a more literal backstabbing, anything really. I certainly have the means, and the power, to go ahead and betray them right this very night in any way I so choose." And indeed, he could easily go ahead and do exactly what he was currently considering. After all, it wasn't like he really cared that much about what Chang and his men currently wished to achieve with the work they were currently doing with him as their benefactor.

But then he chuckled, and shook his head side to side. "But of course," he then stated to himself. "They are currently still far more useful to me alive. Maybe I'll betray them; maybe I won't. But if I do, it definitely won't be until I've successfully gotten what _I_ want out of this whole business."

And indeed this was true. Chang and his men, having spent most of time following their eventual defrosting and escape from the Brotherhood of Evil's Paris headquarters trying desperately to stay in hiding to avoid getting arrested and potential sent on a one way trip to a serious high-level prison for both their service to the Brotherhood as well as their past service to both Brother Blood and their escape from the time they'd already been doing for a certain incident with a xenothium cannon, had been so desperate to get the necessary money and resources to flee to somewhere isolated and private enough to hopefully never be found by the authorities that they'd been more than willing to accept the offer he'd made to them when he'd ended up lucky enough to come across them.

As it currently stood, they were in a purely professional symbiotic partnership born from nothing more than sheer mutual necessity. Chang needed his money and good will to get the money and resources needed to get himself and his men as far off the grid as they could possibly manage. And he needed the scientific prowess and additional manpower that could be provided by Chang and his goons in order to successfully ensure that he had what he himself needed to achieve his own personal goals. And right now, the very project that Chang had just recently been ordering his goons to check on the 'samples' for was a very important element that would prove beneficial to both their goals if things went right.

In Chang's case, this project, if successful, would be just the right thing he'd need to sell to an appropriate 3rd party that would subsequently give him just the right amount of money he and his goons needed to achieve their desired escape as well as potentially enough good will from that same 3rd party to do even more work for them from within their hopeful new safe haven. But for Chang's mysterious current benefactor, the project in question would simultaneously have a secondary purpose that would be far more conducive to his own personal benefit. Specifically, there was someone from his past that he had a serious bone to pick with. And this project that he was currently having Chang work on just so happened to be what he knew would, in some way or other, be the _perfect_ way to lure that person right where he wanted him.

He reached the door to his office, using his personal keycard to unlock it before then walking right inside and closing the door behind him upon entry. He briefly looked to the cot where he slept. He had a feeling it would probably be a good idea to go to sleep for the night within the next ¼ of an hour or so. But then he looked towards his 'desk', and remembered what he now currently wished to do.

He walked resolutely over to his desk, a determined look on his face. He reached the desk, slammed his gun down on the surface of it, and then pointed almost accusingly at a small bulletin board positioned on the wall directly above where his laptop was currently positioned. Specifically, he was pointing at one of three photographs, this one being easily distinguished from the others by the fact that it had a wicked looking sharp knife stabbed into it.

He narrowed his icy blue eyes at the photo, his smug smirk transforming into a silent snarl of rage. "You may think yourself so smart, perfect, and high and mighty compared to me," he silently growled, his finger remaining pointed at the photo. "Even now, long after your death, you've still been successful all these years at preventing me from getting what I want; one of which is rightfully mine and the other of which has proven a more than worthy icing to go with the cake, if not an even more worthy cake in its own right."

He clenched his fist and raised it up towards his face, his eyes looking almost devilish now in the low light of the small desk lamp illuminating the space occupied by the desk and bulletin board. "But just you wait," the man snarled, a half furious and half triumphant tone in his voice. "For if it hadn't already been as much two months ago, then the ball has _definitely_ been set rolling now. The dice have been cast. The dominos have started toppling. It may happen within the next two days. It may happen within a week. It may even take this entire month. But I have what I need at the ready for use. And sooner or later, one way or another, the one person I still need in order to achieve my goals will be in my grasp. And once he's finally back in my reach for the first time since God knows how many years, then mark my words, I _will_ acquire both of the things you've managed to keep denied from me all this time. All in one. Fell. Swoop."

His cellphone suddenly rang, and he cursed. He reflexively drew it out, accepted the call, and placed it up to his ear, not even bothering to check to see who was calling. The way he saw it, he had no need to do so since he already knew damn well by experience just who was now calling.

"What is it?"

"The samples we currently have for Project Primetia," said Professor Chang's voice on the other end of the line. "They are all still at the desired temperature and viability, just as desired."

"Excellent."

The mysterious benefactor nodded his head, an emotionless look on his face working with his equally emotionless tone to hide his rising glee at the confirmation of what he already knew would be the case. "And I'm presuming that's not the only reason behind this call?"

"Correct sir."

"What else do you have to say then?"

"I have also made progress on that machine you wanted me to make for you," the scientist explained. "And now that the rest of the boys are winding down their work and preparing for bed, I wish to run it by you to make sure that I am well and truly on the right track before I start making the finishing touches."

The benefactor raised his eyebrow, an intrigued 'hmm' leaving his mouth in the process. _This_ was a pleasantly surprising bit of additional good news for tonight. "Really now? Well in that case, I presume its still in the technician station?"

"That is correct."

"Excellent."

The benefactor nodded his head. "Head straight there now. I shall meet you there momentarily."

"As you wish."

The benefactor ended the call, directing a smug smirk back at the photo he'd been glaring at and speaking to before. "You'd best keep enjoying your current period of victory while it still lasts," he purred. "Because trust me, your days of triumph over me are now very much numbered. One of these days, I _will_ have what is mine. And that, I assure you, is a _fact_."

The benefactor chuckled once more, slipped his pistol back into its holster on his belt, and then departed from his office to meet up with Chang. As he left, he left the desk light on, allowing it to continue illuminating the desk area, but especially the area of the bulletin board where the three photos were located.

The photo he'd been 'talking to' was of a man who looked almost exactly like the benefactor, with the only difference being that his hair was blonde, shorter, and also less messy compared to the benefactor's messy black hair. The knife that the benefactor still kept jabbed into the photo was positioned right between the eyes of the man's image in the photo. And positioned right underneath the photo was a sticky note with the word 'bigshot' written on it. The photo right next to the man's photo was of a woman with dark brown hair, fair skin, and blue eyes that were a much darker shade of blue compared to those of the man in the photo next to her photo. Drawn upon the woman's forehead was a small cartoon heart split in half. And underneath her photo was a sticky note that had the words 'dirty COW' written on it. But directly underneath both of these two photos was a photo of a young fair skinned boy who looked almost like a perfect elementary school aged spitting image of the man, but with the woman's darker blue eyes. And despite this photo not being the one the benefactor had been 'talking to' earlier, this one was the photo that the benefactor must have _really_ considered important. For not only had the benefactor drawn a massive target symbol all over the photo in red marker, but had also drawn a ridiculously large number of red arrows pointing at that very photo from all directions upon the surface of the bulletin board directly to the left and right of that photo. And right underneath this photo, was a sticky note with one single word written on it. But unlike the sticky notes beneath the photos of the two adults, the word on the sticky note beneath the photo of this young boy was a name; Craig.

**Dun, dun DUN! Things are ****_really_**** getting interesting now eh? I certainly hope so! And please, do feel free to leave plenty of feedback (as per usual, I require an exact minimum of 1 review for this new chapter before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted). Hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to more dudes! And for those of you who have sufficient knowledge of Teen Titan comic book lore, feel free to take a wild guess as to just who Chang's mysterious benefactor is based on the clues I've left in this chapter ^_^**

**Coming up Next: Wildebeest and the founding Titans set out the next morning to take out the irksome tower responsible for Wildebeest's earlier radio silence. How will ****_that_**** task unfold? Find out next time dudes!**


	6. Into the Wild

**So sorry I took so long everybody! I especially hope you all had a happy Halloween and that those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving are looking forward to it (and that everybody is looking forward to the high profile holiday that immediately follows ^_^). That in mind, I now present the next chapter, in which the Titans get to work on taking out that irksome radio interference tower. How shall that task unfold? Find out everybody! Here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you that I do not own Teen Titans, anything else DC-based, or the nundus. The former two are property of DC comics and Warner Brothers, while the latter is technically a brain child of J.K. Rowling (but with a couple unique details added by myself). Good? Perfect. NOW onward with the fic!**

**Chapter 5:**

**Into the Wild**

"You sure this is where the noise begins?"

"Positive. Trust me, with how uncomfortable and painful it was for me to experience, I'm not forgetting anything about it in a hurry."

A quarter of an hour had passed since Wildebeest and the founding Titans had finished their breakfast and set off out of Wildebeest's camp. And now, they were standing right near by an area where Wildebeest insisted was an area where the animal repelling noise began.

"One way to find out." Beast Boy took five steps forward; and then promptly SHRIEKED and jumped backwards, slamming his hands over his ears.

"OW!" He hissed, wincing and gritting his teeth. "Ok. Ok. Definitely where it starts."

Raven raised her eyebrow.

"Are you ok?" Starfire asked.

"Ugh, I'm fine." Beast Boy opened his eyes, still wincing slightly from the noise still ringing in his ears. "Good grief that hurt!"

"Well good thing we're gonna go ahead and put a stop to that noise right about now."

Cyborg caused two noise blasters to extend from his shoulders, pointing in the direction of where Beast Boy had stepped before getting affected by the noise, tapping into a digital keypad on his arm to prepare what he was about to do. "Just need to get it to the right frequency and…"

He pressed one last button, and then gave a thumbs up. "Done."

The noise blasters went off, the resulting sound echoing throughout the area for about two minutes before finally coming to a stop. Cyborg smiled and retracted his noise blasters. "There. That should take care of that pesky noise you and Wildebeest had to deal with."

"I certainly hope so," Beast Boy grumbled, wincing again from both the lingering effects of the animal repelling noise _and_ from the noise Cyborg had just unleashed to cancel it out.

"One way to find out."

Wildebeest stepped all the way up to where Beast Boy had gone before getting quite obviously effected by the animal repelling noise…and then proceeded another five steps without getting affected. He turned around and gave a double thumbs up. "Yep, it worked."

The sound of leopard-like roaring filled the air, and the Titans all tensed up. It now sounded very unpleasantly as if the nundu guards had heard the noise from Cyborg's noise blasters and were about to come rushing over to investigate…or more likely, attack whatever had been responsible for said noise now in their 'territory'.

"May have worked a little _too_ well," said Robin.

"Agreed," said Cyborg.

Then the Titans all heard running feet, plus multiple angry feline snarls. Clearly, the nundus were now already on the way.

"Here comes the cavalry," Beast Boy grumbled.

Starfire raised her eyebrow. "I thought cavalry involved people riding on horses."

"I'll explain later," said Robin. He gestured towards where Wildebeest was now standing. "But horses or no horses, we need to get moving."

"Right," Wildebeest agreed, and then he beckoned. "Come on! Follow me! I recognize this area from when I first followed those Ghostbuster suit guys to that tower! It will be impossible to miss once we reach it!"

The Titans all quickly followed Wildebeest as the elementary school aged honorary member rushed further into the jungle, the sound of running paws and roars filling the air behind them as the fantastical big cats chased after them.

The 6 young heroes spent what felt like an hour racing through the jungle with the nundus distantly pursuing them from behind.

"How much further?" Robin asked as he and the other Titans continued to run through the jungle.

"Soon," Wildebeest responded. "I can promise you that much!"

"Better be quick man," Cyborg grumbled, directing a glare behind him as the sound of nundu growling split the air once more. "Because I doubt those nightmare leopard things will be willing to wait for us to take care of that tower before trying to eat us!"

A roar split the air behind them as if to emphasize Cyborg's point.

Beast Boy gulped, briefly shifting from chimpanzee mode to parrot mode. "They sound hungry," he managed to squawk.

"Agreed," said Starfire, her orange face briefly turning pale.

"Keep moving guys," said Wildebeest, already ten steps ahead of the founding Titans. "We're getting close. I'm sure of it!"

The Titans continued making their way through the jungle, the nundus behind them continuing their pursuit. Fortunately, as Wildebeest had promised, they were indeed getting close. And sure enough…

"There! I see it! Right over there!"

The founding Titans looked to where Wildebeest was pointing and saw what appeared to be the base of the tower in a clearing about a couple yards ahead. Wildebeest turned his head and beckoned. "Come on," he then yelled before bounding off ahead, the founding Titans following as close behind him as they could.

Once they were all in the clearing, they carefully observed the tower that was currently blocking their communication lines. The structure looked exactly like an ordinary radio telecommunications tower. Made from reinforced titanium steel, it towered over the floor of the clearing. And built upon multiple areas of the tower's 'walls' were multiple solar panels, allowing it to draw power from the sunlight, which this particular jungle clearing just so happened to be perfectly well designed to allow sufficient light to enter and provide power. But while a decent feat of technical and mechanical engineering and solar power, that didn't change the fact that it looked very ugly and out of place in the African jungle clearing. And even more importantly, it needed to be dealt with in order for the Titans to be able to use their communicators.

"Beast Boy nodded his head, coming to a landing while still in parrot mode in the process. Then he reverted to human form. "What are we gonna do now?" He asked. "Is there an off switch?"

"Can't say for sure," said Wildebeest. "But considering how it was able to be activated by someone else not present here when I first found this thing, it probably wouldn't do us any good even if there is such a switch."

"He's right," said Cyborg. "Even if there is a manual switch we could use to shut it down, just turning it off won't do us any good if Chang and his goons are just able to remotely turn it back on." He pointed at the solar panels. "And depending on just how long those things have been on and active, it could take hours for this thing to shut down even if we remove all of these panels."

"We'll just have to destroy it then," said Robin. He reached into his utility belt. "And I know just the way to do it," he then continued as he drew out several explosive charges.

Cyborg nodded his head upon seeing the charges, already knowing exactly what the Boy Wonder had in mind. "Good move." With the specific metal that the interference tower was made from, it would take serious effort to completely obliterate it, and most of the methods at the Titans' disposal that would allow complete obliteration for the tower was just as likely to lead to the tower's destruction occurring at the cost of serious collateral damage. But with the charges Robin was currently drawing from his belt, the Titans wouldn't need to completely obliterate the tower. All he had to do was attach the charges to the areas where the tower's most important integral structural support points were located. If those were damaged sufficiently enough, the entire tower would collapse into pieces like a pile of blocks; at which point, it would likely take several days to repair the resulting damages and put the tower back together, more than enough time for the Titans to finish taking care of Chang and whatever it was he was currently planning.

Robin nodded, and then pointed at the tower. "Cyborg, I'll need you to use whatever tech you have available that can help me figure out the right places to attach the charges."

"Can do. Need me to help determine the power level for the blasts?"

"I'll just set them to max. Better safe than sorry."

"If you say so."

"I'm guessing you'll need me to provide a shield?" Raven asked.

Robin smiled. "You read my mind."

Cyborg nodded his head in agreement. "Yep, with one of your forcefields, we can keep the demolition contained safely enough to prevent it from harming us or causing any collateral damage. Not to mention, depending on the size of the forcefield, some of the tower pieces could end up crashing against the shield's walls and getting even further damaged as a result."

"What about the rest of us?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes, please," Starfire agreed. "Is there any way we can provide the assistance?"

Robin was just about to answer when the sound of the nundus roaring split the air once again. The Titans all looked in the direction the noise had come from. They had completely forgotten that the nundus were still pursuing them.

"There's your answer."

The other Titans all looked to Robin, who nodded his head and pointed in the direction of the incoming nundus. "Starfire, Beast Boy, Wildebeest, see if you can keep those leopard things occupied while Cyborg and I set up the demolition. Raven, it might be a while before we have everything ready, so see if you can help them while we're doing so. We'll give you a signal when we need you to summon that forcefield."

Raven nodded her head, lifting her hood into place.

"Ready when you are man," said Cyborg.

"Perfect." Robin clapped his hands together. "Titans! Go!"

The Titans sprang into action, with Robin and Cyborg darting off towards the obstructive tower while the rest of the group positioned themselves around the clearing's borders in preparation for when the nundu leap arrived.

In some rather unnervingly good timing, Starfire had just come to a stop, ready for battle, when one of the nundus lunged from the undergrowth straight towards her! The Tamaranean shrieked, and fired a starbolt jet from her hands, sending the beast flying right back where it had come from. A 2nd nundu fared no better when it got grabbed by the tail, mid-lunge, by the trunk of Beast Boy's elephant mode before then getting spun around like a tether ball and sent rocketing to the side, at which point it slammed into a 3rd nundu trying its luck. A 4th nundu similarly got sent packing after getting hit by a burst of shadowy lightning from Raven's fingertips. The 5th nundu to lunge in likewise fell short of its mark, courtesy of a punch to its jaw from Wildebeest. But the remaining two managed to successfully get inside the clearing, which left Beast Boy and Wildebeest forced to move away from the clearing to go after the two that had successfully entered while leaving Star and Raven to keep trying to prevent the other five from joining their brethren.

Robin and Cyborg, meanwhile, were already in position at the tower, with Cyborg standing at the base with his scanners active while Robin started climbing up the tower's walls. And as the rest of the Titans kept the nundus busy, Robin set to work on attaching charges to appropriate areas that Cyborg said were correct based on his scans.

"You're doing good Rob," said Cyborg.

"Easy for you to say." Robin heaved and grunted from exertion as he attached a 5th charge. "Good grief, how many of these do I have to put on here?"

"Judging by my current readings, you still have another 14 to attach."

Robin groaned. "This is insane."

"This was your idea man, not mine."

"I know, I know." Robin took a deep breath, exhaled, and then drew out a 6th charge. "Where do I put this one?"

"A little to the left."

Meanwhile, the rest of the Titans continued their fierce battle against the 7 juvenile nundus. Starfire and Raven fired their respective blasts left and right, their respective opponents spewing fire at them in response. Beast Boy and Wildebeest, meanwhile, continued to beat up their own respective nundu challengers in a more physical fashion.

"This is why I'm more of a dog person," Wildebeest grumbled under his breath as he sent one of the nundus flying backward with a punch to the jaw.

"Noted," Beast Boy growled, briefly assuming his human form to do so, before then turning into a rhino and smacking one of his own nundu assailants aside with a swing of his head.

The girl Titans, meanwhile, were hardly having any easier of a time, with Starfire continuing to let fly with her starbolts and eye beams while Raven unleashed multiple bursts of shadowy energy to similarly combat against the bursts of flame fired from the jaws of the fantastical big cats.

At one point, one stray fireball from one of the nundus struck the tower just a couple inches above where Robin was positioned. The boy wonder hissed, leaning as far away from the impact as he could, and just barely managing to maintain his grip on the latest explosive he'd drawn from his utility belt. At this point, he'd successfully attached 12 of the necessary charges, and had now just barely avoided getting roasted or blown up.

"Watch it!" He yelled.

"My bad," said Wildebeest.

Then Robin briefly felt a burst of heat coming up from below him before the sound of Cyborg's sonic cannon going off coincided with the source of heat suddenly vanishing. Robin turned his head in time to see that Cyborg had just now fired his sonic cannon at a second burst of fire that had been heading straight towards one of the charges directly beneath the boy wonder's current position.

"I'd hurry up if I were you," said Cyborg, his sonic cannon still steaming from the blast he'd fired to dissipate the fireball that had almost prematurely triggered the planned demolition for the radio interference tower. "Before one of these psycho leopards ends up blowing us up alongside the tower."

Robin gritted his teeth, hardly appreciating the fact that he himself had essentially just now been ordered to hurry instead of being the one giving such an order. Nonetheless, he was a professional. "Don't worry, I'm on it." He got back to work, the rest of the Titans doing the best they could to keep the nundu fiery breath of the nundu leap contained to their battles and away from Robin and Cyborg.

After what felt like forever, Robin finally got the last of the 19 recommended charges set into place. "I've got them in!"

"Get down from there!"

Robin leaped off the tower, turning his impact with the ground into a roll as he landed. He and Cyborg rushed away towards the rest of the Titans, the boy wonder drawing out his trigger device. "Raven! Shield!"

The sorceress paused only long enough to blast a lunging nundu aside before then turning to face the tower, her eyes and hands glowing with shadowy energy. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A large dome of shadowy energy formed around the tower, with Robin pressing the button on the trigger device seconds after the dome had fully formed.

The resulting explosions completely engulfed the tower, causing the entire tower to burst apart at the structural support points before then collapsing into pieces. And as Cyborg had guessed would potentially happen, some of the pieces became further damaged after colliding with the walls of Raven's force field. Once the entire tower had collapsed irreparably into ash and scraps of metal, wire, and solar panel glass, Raven dismissed the force field. Robin nodded his head with a smug grin on his face at the sight of the destruction. "Perfect," he thought to himself.

"Robin…"

At the sound of Starfire's worried statement, the other Titans all looked to her, and then ahead, only to blanch at the sight of the 7 nundus still in position, now snarling and growling with their eyes narrowed as they seemingly tensed up in preparation for pouncing; or in the case of the leader, blasting them with a burst of flame.

"Ok?" Robin stated, half confused and half nervous. "Shouldn't our little demolition have scared them off?"

"Your guess is as good as mine man," said Cyborg.

The nundus snarled, and then abruptly let loose with their fire breath, startling the Titans into stumbling backwards. The cats were quick to capitalize on their moment of advantage, continuing to advance forward, using their intimidating appearance and bursts of their fiery breath to keep the Titans moving back towards the wreckage of the tower, while also occasionally using either their breath, or a well timed lunge into an alternate position, to prevent the Titans from trying to get past them.

"Yo!" Cyborg yelled as he very narrowly avoided getting roasted by a burst of fire breath. "What is it with these things?!"

Wildebeest shrieked as another burst of fire breath nearly singed the fur on his left side. "Watch it!" He yelled reflexively at the guilty beast.

Beast Boy, currently in elephant mode, trumpeted in half rage and half fear, the 7 nundus all roaring in response.

"It's almost as if they want us to go towards the tower," Robin noted.

Raven narrowed her eyes, now getting an idea of a potential explanation. "Or maybe there's someone controlling them who wants us near it." She prepared herself for casting her mantra yet again. "And there's one way to find out." She raised her hands. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

The collars around the nundus' necks became encased with shadowy energy, and then shattered into smoke and ash. The beasts very suddenly came to a stop, their furious glares switching instantly to looks of confusion as if they'd come out of a trance.

The Titans all gaped at this development, Beast Boy shifting back to human form. "Huh," he said. "What do you know. They were under someone's control."

Robin shook his head in bemusement. "And now I'm starting to wonder why we didn't think to remove those collars before."

"Better late than never," said Cyborg.

Raven rolled her eyes.

Then the Titans heard snarling, and they looked back at the nundus in time to see the 7 juvenile fantastical cats now snarling at them once more, but this time with looks of unnerved wariness as opposed to fury and rage.

"Remain calm," Beast Boy quickly stated. "They're just nervous and confused. As long as we don't make any sudden movements or similar reason to come off as threatening, they should leave us alone, or at least allow us the chance to leave."

Then the nundus suddenly seemed to widen their eyes, and then cringe while whimpering in fear. The Titans raised their eyebrows. "What the?" Cyborg asked.

"Friends," Starfire stated in confusion. "Why are they afraid?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Wildebeest.

Then the 7 juvenile nundus turned around and ran back the way they'd come, hissing and screeching in terror.

The Titans continued to gape in the direction their fantastical opponents had fled. Robin raised his eyebrow. "Odd time for them to decide to be afraid of us."

The other Titans similarly indicated agreement and confusion on the matter. But then Beast Boy just happened to turn his head to look behind them, and his eyes widened, his face turning a lighter shade of green in the process. "I don't think its us they're afraid of."

"Huh?" Raven asked, turning her head to look behind her, only for her face to turn a lighter shade of gray than normal and her own eyes to widen at the sight of what Beast Boy had already sighted behind them. "Guys," she then stated. "Beast Boy's right."

"Huh?" Cyborg asked.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

As this happened, all four of the remaining Titans turned their heads, only to all blanch and gape at the sight of what had just been revealed to now be behind them…a fully grown adult male nundu…that currently just so happened to already have its eyes narrowed into a half hungry and half angry glare as it gazed straight at them.

"Ok yeah," said Cyborg. "_That_ makes more sense."

"MMMRRROOOWWWRRR!" The adult nundu roared, it's amber golden right eye blazing with rage and hunger that more than made up for its blank and opaque left eye, and a burst of fiery breath already swiftly charging up in its mighty jaws.

**Out of the frying pan and into the fire everyone! Dun, dun, DUN! Here's to hoping you read and enjoyed this, leave plenty of feedback (remember, I require an exact minimum of one review for this new chapter before the next one is allowed to be posted upon its completion), and that you are all eager to see what comes next!**

**Coming up Next: With the unexpected appearance of a wild adult nundu, how shall the Titans escape now that they've successfully dismantled the communications interference tower and the 7 juvenile nundus have left the picture?!**


	7. Rumble in the Jungle

**Hey everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and I'm sorry I took so long, but here's a new chapter! In this chapter, the Titans find themselves having to deal with the unexpectedly arrived wild adult nundu. How shall this situation unfold? Prepare to find out!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you that I do not own Teen Titans, anything else DC-based, or anything involving nundus that I didn't make up myself for my own interpretation. Thank you.**

**Chapter 6:**

**Rumble in the Jungle**

Robin was _very_ swift to react. "TITANS, GO!"

The Titans all leaped in different directions, just in time to avoid getting caught in the giant furnace blast of flames spewed out from the adult nundu's jaws. Starfire happened to fly over the beast, and her eyes widened at the sight of an important detail. "Friends," she yelled. "It does not have a collar!"

"Well then why is it attacking us then?!" Cyborg yelled.

"Aside from territoriality?" Beast Boy asked.

The nundu abruptly snapped its teeth at the shape shifter, forcing him to jump backwards as a jackrabbit.

"Maybe it's hungry?" Wildebeest suggested.

"Well why would it want to eat us?" Robin asked.

"Yeah," said Beast Boy, now briefly back in human form. "You see the size of this thing? We wouldn't make much of a meal for it."

"Guys," said Raven. "Look at its legs."

The other Titans all looked, and promptly found their hearts sinking at the sight of the beast's right hind leg hanging limp.

"Oh yeah," Beast Boy whimpered. "That will do it."

And indeed, this adult nundu, and an elderly one at that, was in fact crippled in that leg. It had been stabbed there the previous week by its natural prey. And it had taken three full days to heal and another four after that for it to be able to even walk again. Naturally, as a result of this, it was fiendishly hungry. And with its crippled leg making it far more difficult than usual for it to hunt, it was willing to eat practically anything, including the six humanoid figures now present in front of it. In fact, it had actually very briefly considered eating an hour-long dead elephant it had found several minutes prior, only to then get distracted by the sound of the Titans battling the 7 younger nundus. And now, having reached the area the noise had come from and found itself with the chance to have fresh meat instead, it was now very much willing to try to make a meal, however small, out of these seemingly quite small and helpless unfamiliar mammals. The beast roared and started charging up another burst of fire. The Titans quickly got out of the way once more, and the flames once again harmlessly engulfed the ground where they'd been standing.

Robin drew out three explosive disks from his belt, jumped into the air, and hurled the disks at the right side of the nundu's head. The beast roared as the disks exploded into bursts of fire against its head, and then snapped its teeth at the boy wonder. Robin extended his bo staff just in time to jam it between the nundu's jaws. The giant leopard snarled and swung its head side to side to dislodge Robin and the bo staff. When this failed, it started charging up its fire breath yet again, forcing Robin to jump away, taking his bo staff with him, in order to avoid getting roasted.

Cyborg, his sonic cannon already primed and ready, opened fire the instant Robin had evaded the fire breath. The sonic laser struck the left side of the beast's head, causing it to briefly falter and shut off its fire breath. With a roar, the nundu retaliated by smacking Cyborg aside with a backhand swing of its left paw.

Raven was already sending a telekinetically uprooted tree swinging towards the nundu's head while it was still focused on Cyborg, and the beast shrieked in surprise as the mighty shadow encased tree slammed against its head. It swung its head in Raven's direction afterward, roaring in rage, only to then be knocked down to the ground on its belly when the tree smacked down on the top of its head. The sorceress was quick to capitalize on this, causing tree roots to burst from the ground and start coiling around the creature's legs.

But the nundu wasn't stupid, and it was quick to capitalize on its own advantage; namely, that Raven was currently positioned right in front of its head. It roared, charging up its fire breath once more. And it did so at such a high speed that Raven was just barely able to summon a force field in time to avoid getting blasted to ash in the subsequent gigantic wave of fire that came spewing out of the beast's mighty jaws. And with all of Raven's concentration now being devoted to her shield, there was nothing left to ensure that the tree roots kept moving to restrain the nundu, and it snapped free of them as if they were paper. By the time Raven had dismissed her shield after the fire dissipated, the nundu had already raised its right front paw as if about to slice at her with its claws.

But then Beast Boy intervened in the form of a t-rex, snapping his jaws around the nundu's paw. The nundu roared in pain as Beast Boy continued to tighten the grip of his t-rex jaws around its paw. Then the beast snarled, glaring hatefully at the changeling, and then swung him over its head before slamming him down on his back. The impact jarred Beast Boy into letting go of the nundu's paw. Then his eyes widened at the sight of the nundu rearing its head up as if about to try to bite him in the throat.

A flurry of starbolts slammed against the back of the nundu's head. It roared in pain from Starfire's onslaught, then turned and tried to snap its teeth at her. Starfire dodged, leaving the now angrily snarling beast in just the right position for Robin's grappling gun to coil around its neck. With a surprised hiss, the nundu turned its head just in time to see Robin start to go rocketing up towards it thanks to the grappling gun cord, already reaching into his belt at the same time to draw out a gadget.

But the nundu was a resourceful beast, and it jerked its head rapidly to the left. This sent the grappling cord flying off course and Robin himself hurtling skyward. By the time the Boy Wonder had fully regained his bearings, he had only enough to shriek before then hurriedly drawing out and extending his bo staff just in time to prevent the nundu from successfully closing its jaws around him when he fell right within reach of it trying to eat him. He panted and gasped as he briefly dangled from his bo staff over the nundu's tongue while the beast itself snarled irritably at the inconvenience that had just resulted from its failed attempt at eating him. But then the beast started charging up its fire breath, and Robin was forced to hurriedly jump out of its jaws with a shriek. A gigantic jet of flames rocketed from out of the nundu's mouth literally two seconds after Robin had exited.

A maelstrom of shadowy lightning dropped down on the nundu, and the beast roared while shutting off its breath attack to focus on Raven. Then it shrieked in pain as a volley of missiles crashed into it. Then Starfire zapped it on the back of its head with her eyebeams right as it was turning its head to face Cyborg. Then Beast Boy started flying around and pestering it in pteranodon form.

Unfortunately for the shapeshifter, this strategy would end up costing him dearly when he went so far as to grab the nundu's tail and pull on it with his pteranodon talons. For seconds after he started doing so, the nundu roared and snapped its tail like a whip, sending the green pterosaur rocketing backward towards the wreckage of the radio interference tower. Beast Boy landed hard on the ground and bounced three times before sliding to a stop right in front of the wreckage, reverting to human form in the process.

But things were about to get even worse from here. For then a disembodied electronic voice suddenly stated, "Match detected."

Beast Boy's eyes snapped open, and he got onto his hands and knees just in time for four metal poles to rise from the ground surrounding him before the space between the poles, plus the empty space between the tops, became filled with glowing yellow energy barriers. Briefly turning a lighter shade of green in surprise, Beast Boy scrambled up to his feet. "Wha…hey!"

He rushed towards one of the barriers, turning into a bighorn sheep in the process, and rammed his head against it, only to be sent flying backwards, complete with getting zapped by a jolt of electricity seconds between his head's impact and the moment he got knocked back. He groaned in pain when he landed, reverting to human form in the process. "Ow."

At the sound of something rising into position behind him, he turned his head in time to see what looked like a miniature beach siren rise out of the ground in the exact center of where he was currently trapped. Atop this device was what looked like a timer set for 5 minutes…that then started counting down. "Releasing Primetia sample in five minutes," said the disembodied mechanical voice.

Beast Boy gulped. "That doesn't sound good," he stated to himself.

Starfire happened to notice what had happened, and she was quick to react. "Friends! Beast Boy is in trouble!"

The other Titans all looked in the same direction, and promptly blanched. Cyborg immediately started to rush to the changeling's rescue. "Hang on buddy!"

The nundu, however, had other ideas. With a stomp of its foot, it both blocked Cyborg's path and caused him to lose his footing and fall on his back. He barely even had time to fully regain his senses after this before he was then hurriedly yanked away by a string of Raven's powers to avoid getting smashed under the nundu's paw when it subsequently tried to stomp on him. No sooner had Cyborg been yanked to safety when he and the other Titans saw the nundu shamble into position so that it was directly facing them while standing in between them and the 'caged' Beast Boy. The beast snarled at them, either not noticing the energy 'cage' behind it, or just not caring about it, as it directed its hungry gaze at the 5 young heroes that stood before it. At the same time, Beast Boy couldn't help but gulp as he nervously gazed at the nundu and his friends with one eye and the rapidly ticking mystery device with his other eye.

This wasn't lost on the other Titans. "We need to help him," said Raven, her voice firm and indicating no room for argument.

"You can say that again," Cyborg agreed. But then he pointed at the nundu. "But I doubt Hello Kitty over here is gonna be in any hurry to politely let us by to get him out of there." As if in agreement, the nundu roared again, its good eye blazing in a mixture of hunger and rage. Then it suddenly let loose with its fire breath. The Titans hurriedly dodged, and the flames roasted the grassy ground where they'd been standing.

Robin glowered witheringly at the beast under his mask after dodging the flames. "Like to turn up the heat huh?" He drew out a trio of flame disks. "Let's see how you like it!" He threw the disks, all three of which burst into fiery clouds after slamming in unison against the side of the nundu's head.

"MMMRRROOOWWWRRR!"

The nundu turned its head to Robin, roared, and prepared another burst of fire breath. But then Starfire blasted it on the back of the head with her eye beams before it could let loose. The beast howled from this attack and turned its head to face Starfire just in time for the Tamaranean to swoop forward and give it a flying kick to the jaw. The beast stumbled, snarling and hissing from the blow, but then swung its right paw Starfire's way once it had regained its footing.

The Tamaranean flew out of the way in time for tendrils of shadowy energy to go flying around the nundu's paw and pull, sending the mighty beast off balance once more. The nundu snarled and let loose at Raven with a burst of fire, forcing her to dismiss her attack so she could dodge. No sooner had Raven dodged when she was then forced to hurriedly levitate herself over the nundu when it tried to snap at her with its teeth. She came to a stop right behind the nundu, only to then dodge again when the nundu saw her there and subsequently attempted to smack her with its tail.

"YO!"

The nundu reflexively turned its head at the sound of this yell; only to then get blasted right in the face by Cyborg's sonic cannon. The beast stumbled backwards, briefly landing on its rump.

Cyborg smirked. "Try _that_ on for size pussy cat!"

The nundu snarled, jerking its head to face Cyborg directly. But then it shrieked in surprise when it felt something small, yet heavy, suddenly latch onto the back of its head.

"Forget that," Wildebeest yelled as the nundu started snarling and swinging its head side to side to throw him off its head. "Try _me_ on for size!"

The beast roared, furiously swinging its head side to side in its attempts at dislodging its unwanted passenger. But then it found itself getting further irritated as it found itself simultaneously falling victim to a volley of explosive disks, shadow orbs, star bolts, and sonic lasers while still trying to get rid of Wildebeest.

From within the energy cage he was still trapped in, Beast Boy smiled, happy to see his friends currently having the upper hand against the nundu. He was so happy in fact that, briefly forgetting his current status, impulsively started to transform into a t-rex…only to then be reminded the hard way when, seconds away from finishing his morph, the top of his head pounded against the energy barrier roof. The resulting impact, combined with the electrical shock, was enough to jolt Beast Boy onto his bottom, reflexively reverting fully back to human form in the process. The changeling winced and rubbed the back of his head from the pain.

"Ow," he grumbled. He happened to look behind him after opening his eyes, and he gulped nervously at the sight of the timer now reaching the 3-minute mark. "Not good," he thought to himself. He directed a glance out of the corner of his eye towards where his friends and the nundu were still battling. So far, things still appeared to be going well on that end. Trying his best not to panic over his currently still dwindling time limit, he turned around to completely face his battling friends once more. "Come on dudes!" He yelled in as encouraging of a tone as he could manage. "You can do it! I know you can!"

Unfortunately, the nundu wasn't stupid; and it eventually managed to figure out a way to put a stop to its current torment. And sure enough, the instant it became aware of just the briefest of lulls, the beast was swift to take advantage. Noticing that Cyborg was charging up his sonic cannon for another blast at its face, it hurriedly ducked its head; just in time for Wildebeest to end up accidentally blasted off when Cyborg's blast ended up striking him instead!

"Oof!" Wildebeest grunted as he was sent rocketing off the nundu's head by Cyborg's blast.

Cyborg instantly shut off his sonic cannon, human eye widened at what he'd just accidentally done. "Wildebeest!" He yelled. But then he was suddenly engulfed, and sent flying backward, by a gigantic stream of fire that the nundu sent spewing at him from its mouth.

"Cyborg!" Starfire yelled. The nundu immediately reacted to the sound of her voice, smacking her aside with a swing of its tail.

"Hey!"

The nundu swung its right front paw in a backhanded style, swatting Robin aside like a mosquito.

"Azarath, Metrion…"

The nundu snapped its head in Raven's direction, sending a gigantic stream of green gas rapidly spewing out of its jaws towards the sorceress. Raven's eyes widened, and she hurriedly melted into the shadows in time to just barely avoid getting caught in the nundu's poison breath. She materialized right in between Robin and Cyborg, who were both groaning as they worked to get back on their feet. Starfire flew over towards them while carrying Wildebeest, and then they all turned their heads in time to see the nundu tensing itself up as if preparing for an attack, an almost hateful looking glare on its face as its good eye slowly turned from yellow to red…solid red.

Starfire's eyes widened. "Friends," she squeaked. "It has entered the frenzy of blood!"

"Well that's totally not gonna make things even harder," Cyborg grumbled sarcastically.

"What do we have to do to defeat this thing?!" Wildebeest yelled. "Blow it up?!"

Robin was just about to respond with a snarky comment when he suddenly paused, his masked eyes widened as he unexpectedly found himself suddenly coming up with an idea as a result of Wildebeest's question. "Guys," he stated, "I think I know what we can do to get rid of this thing."

"What's your idea?" Cyborg asked.

"You guys remember How to Train Your Dragon?"

The other Titans nodded, except for Raven, who raised her eyebrow. "I haven't seen those movies."

"Why?" Wildebeest asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"The books seemed too childish," Raven stated. "I thought the movies would be the same."

"You've clearly got serious catching up to do," said Cyborg.

"Guys."

The Titans looked back at Robin. "Look, I'll make this simple. All we need is for that monster to start trying out another burst of its poison breath…"

"Like now?"

The older Titans all looked at the nundu upon hearing Wildebeest's comment and seeing him point in the beast's direction. Sure enough, there was now once again that distinctive green gas starting to build up inside the creature's gaping jaws.

"Oh boy," said Robin.

"If you're planning what I think you're planning, you'd better move quickly now," said Cyborg.

"Right, of course." Robin hurriedly drew out an explosive disk, mentally praying that he'd drawn out a fire disk like he planned instead of a voltage disk. He prepared to toss it and prime it, waiting till just the right moment.

The nundu leaned its head forward, its jaws opening slightly wider as the gas started to expand in preparation for release. "NOW!" Cyborg yelled.

Robin had already pressed the trigger seconds before Cyborg yelled, and he threw the disk straight into the nundu's open mouth. And sure enough, when it blew up, it turned out to indeed be a flame disk. The gas erupted into a fiery burst of smoke right as it was just starting to leave the beast's mouth, the nundu roaring in pain as its eyes reflexively closed and it reared its head up.

Robin was quick to react, and he pointed at the nundu. "OPEN FIRE!"

His friends were quick to obey, and the four older Titans all started once again opening fire with their respective long-range attacks. The nundu roared in rage and pain as it was once again subjected to a merciless bombardment of explosive disks, starbolts, shadow orbs, and sonic laser blasts. For about a minute, the Titans kept firing at the beast. Then the nundu roared, leaped out of the way, and then hissed at them while baring its teeth before then bounding off back into the jungle. It was now clear to the beast that, hungry or not, the unfamiliar mammals it had just tried to make a fresh meal out of just simply weren't worth the abuse they were giving it.

Wildebeest, having managed to slip out from behind the nundu over the course of his friends' onslaught against it, took the opportunity to pick up a small pebble and throw it ineffectually in the fleeing beast's direction. The pebble landed harmlessly between the two trees that the nundu had lunged through over the course of its departure. "Yeah," he yelled. "That will teach you to mess with us!"

Robin couldn't help but shake his head side to side at this. "Kids will be kids," he thought grudgingly to himself.

"Um dudes?"

The other Titans looked to where Beast Boy's voice had come from, and their eyes all widened at the sight of what Beast Boy was now pointing out to them; specifically, that the timer was now down to the 5 second mark. And it didn't take long at all for the timer to subsequently reach zero.

"Releasing Primetia sample."

Beast Boy had just enough time to swiftly turn into a box turtle and curl up into his shell before the device attached to the timer unleashed a gigantic mass of what appeared to be a virulent green gas that rapidly expanded to fill the entirety of the energy cage.

"Beast Boy!" Raven yelled, reflexively snapping both her hands forward and summoning a force field around the shapeshifter. Unfortunately, said force field successfully formed around the green turtle all of two seconds after it had already gotten engulfed by the gas.

**Dun, dun, DUN! How will things unfold now?! Find out next time (sometime after this chapter receives AT LEAST one review)!**

**Coming up Next: With Beast Boy having been caught in this mysterious gas, the Titans are quick to give him a much needed check up and examination after escaping back to Wildebeest's camp. At this point, its time to start wondering...just what is this Primetia?**


	8. Infected

**Man I took way too long. Regardless, hope you're still in the mood for more teen titanic awesomeness from me, because here's the newest chapter! In this, with Beast Boy having been infected by the mysterious Primetia gas, he is promptly subjected to an examination. But the results gained soon prove reason for even further worries. And before long, Beast Boy finds himself making an especially daring decision. Sound worth the wait? I certainly hope so!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you all (just in case the long wait time made you forget) that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC based. Also, some of the 'dialogue' in this chapter may have been inspired by elements of the works of Erin Hunter. All that out of the way, onward with the new chapter everyone!**

**Chapter 7:**

**Infected**

"Can I take these off now?"

The Titans were currently back at Wildebeest's camp, and Cyborg was using his scanners to perform a health examination on a very annoyed Beast Boy, who was currently seated on a chair with multiple wires and other medical devices attached to him similarly to when he'd been twice used as a 'guinea pig' during the 'blood poison probes' incident from 5 years prior. His fellow founding Titans were all gathered around him in concern while Wildebeest was currently at work in scouting the 'border' around where his camp was located, and also contacting Wildebeest and Pantha to finally let them know he was indeed ok.

Cyborg took a deep breath, exhaled, and then briefly turned away from his scanners to look at his disgruntled friend. "BB," he stated. "I've already told you; I have to make absolutely certain that you're ok."

Beast Boy groaned. "But we've been at this all day! And you haven't even found anything wrong with me!"

"Technically, it's only been 2 hours since he started," said Raven.

Beast Boy turned his head slowly to face Raven, a rankled glare on his face. At the same time, he found himself feeling further annoyed at the sound of the minds of the various animals he could turn into snarling, growling, and similarly making a ruckus inside his mind. The fact that they'd already been doing as much since about 15 minutes after he'd been extracted from the gas didn't help his mood.

"Attack," roared the mind of his lion form.

"Escape," hooted the mind of his gorilla form.

"Kill," snarled the mind of his crocodile form.

"Quiet," Beast Boy mentally hissed. The animal voices in his head went quiet, but he nonetheless sensed the minds of his animal forms rolling their eyes. And then he briefly heard his reticulated python form hissing spitefully at him.

"You absolutely sure that you haven't found anything wrong with him yet?" Robin asked.

"So far, still nothing I can say for sure about," Cyborg admitted, once again taking another look at the images he was getting from his scans.

"Guys, I'm fine," Beast Boy snarled. "Really, I don't feel anything wrong with me. Just get this stuff off of me already!"

"That's more like it," his lion form snarled.

"Agreed," whinnied his horse form. "Let us run and be free!"

"Indeed," rumbled the deep voice of his African elephant form. "We've been caged and held back long enough, let us out!"

"No," Robin grunted in an even, but firm, tone. "Not until we're absolutely certain."

"But Robin," Starfire stated. "He has been at the mercy of the scanners for two hours. And another hour had already passed by the time friend Cyborg started scanning him. If nothing appears to be wrong with him, surely we can give him the releasing?"

"She speaks with the brain of a furfin," moaned Beast Boy's great white shark form. "Why do you still sit here and listen to all this stoneskin hearted drivel? Attack! Fight! Kill!"

"Shut up," Beast Boy mentally hissed, now quite annoyed at having heard his friend being compared in such insulting fashion to a seal and sea turtle.

"Make us longpaw," his grey wolf form howled scornfully.

"What he said," his crocodile form snarled in agreement.

"Star, did you not _see_ that gas he got stuck in?" Robin asked pointedly. "I know you're immune to most Earth gases, but gas attacks like this are never to be taken lightly, regardless of species. And remember what the machine that released the gas said when Beast Boy triggered its trap? Chang clearly wanted him to get infected with this gas. And there's no way he would have gone to all that trouble just for the sake of a harmless gas prank; even if that kind of thing were his style."

"Hate to say this Star, but Rob's got a point," said Cyborg. He nodded his head. "Not to mention, considering how this gas was likely that 'Primetia' thing the machine mentioned, it's especially important we be as careful as possible here. After all, last time I checked, no such gas has ever been reported to be in existence in any books or similar scientific databases. In other words, we're completely blind on this subject. And contrary to what people on Earth commonly say, what you don't know can in fact hurt you."

"This is idiotic," growled Beast Boy's grizzly bear form. "All this bee brained claptrap is achieving nothing, and these flat faces keeping us idle are only prolonging us from any sense of relief. Stop sitting around like moss and doing nothing! Attack! Attack! Rage! Rage!"

"Agreed," snorted Beast Boy's rhino form. "Rage! Rage! Rage!"

Beast Boy took a deep breath, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in annoyance at both his friends' insistence on keeping him hooked up to Cyborg's scanners and the incessant ruckus his animal forms were making in his mind.

"But he's already said he feels the perfectly fine," Starfire insisted. "Surely you heard him?"

"I heard him perfectly clearly," Robin growled. "But again, we have to be absolutely certain. We can't take any chances with this Primetia stuff. Especially not if doing so could mean putting Beast Boy's life at risk."

It took all of Beast Boy's willpower not to slap his palm against his face and growl in irritation. "For the love of…" he thought to himself.

"Robin's right," said Raven. "We can't take any chances. Like he said, Chang appears to have deliberately wanted Beast Boy in particular to get exposed to this Primetia gas, whatever it is. And if he was willing to go all the trouble he went to for the sake of this current outcome, we have to be extra careful right now. Because like Cyborg said, we know next to nothing about Primetia."

"Exactly," Robin agreed. "We know nothing about Primetia outside of its name and it obviously being some sort of gas. And not only do we know barely anything about Primetia itself, we don't even know what else Chang could be planning to do with it. For all we know, he could very well be planning to use it as some kind of bioweapon or something. And trust me, those things are never to be taken lightly. Especially not when you consider that a lot of them are the result of genetically modified viruses."

Beast Boy surreptitiously rolled his eyes. "This is insane," he thought to himself. Unfortunately, this soon proved to be a big mistake.

"ENOUGH," roared the mind of his tiger form, clearly seizing initiative from its host's recent action. "I grow tired now of all this chatter between your pathetic thinpaw brethren. And clearly so do you. Let us act! Attack! Kill!"

"No, no, no, no, no…" Beast Boy hurriedly stammered under his breath, trying desperately to get his animal forms to calm down.

"RAGE!"

In a brief moment, the tiger mind took over, and Beast Boy unwillingly turned into a tiger and lunged a few feet forward towards Cyborg, snapping himself free of the wires and other devices before coming to a stop just an inch away from the now quite startled half robot Titan, a wild look of rage on his face as he snarled and growled.

"Hey! Woah!" Cyborg yelled, hurriedly snapping his hands up in a gesture of defense as he reflexively worked to back away and move aside.

Beast Boy roared, his teeth bared to the fullest and eyes seeming to briefly fill up with lightning as he briefly continued to act with his tiger mind in full control of his body.

"Beast Boy…"

The tiger mind reflexively allowed its body to turn its head in time to see Robin, Starfire, and Raven tensed up and seemingly ready to attack, with the former having his bo staff at the ready and the latter two having their respective energy attacks charged up and blazing around their hands. In that instant, the brief instinctive flash of fear that the tiger felt at the sight of the 'fire' around Starfire's hands proved just what Beast Boy needed to allow his own mind to seize back control. And no sooner had he reasserted control when he automatically reverted back to human form, collapsing on his stomach and flat on his face in the process.

"Ow."

Cyborg reflexively leaned towards Beast Boy, failing to notice Robin frantically gesturing for him to stay back. "You ok buddy?"

"I am now," Beast Boy grumbled. Then he seemed to wince, gritting his teeth as if suddenly undergoing a headache. "Hopefully."

Robin raised his eyebrow, narrowing his eyes in the process. "I'll say," he grumbled. He shook his head. "Care to explain what that craziness you just pulled as a tiger was all about?"

Beast Boy briefly heard his grizzly bear form growl abrasively at the accusing and commanding tone in Robin's voice, but Beast Boy managed with great effort to keep it in line. "Well I wasn't exactly planning on doing that thank you very much," he growled. He slowly moved onto his backside, placing his hand against his forehead as another flash of pain flared up in his head. "It's the tiger's own fault for taking control of my body."

Robin raised his eyebrow, clearly skeptical. Cyborg, however, was more open to the idea. "Take control? I thought only the Beast could do that."

"Usually that's the case."

Beast Boy sighed and shook his head side to side. "But apparently, the rest of my forms weren't content with just driving me crazy with incessant chattering."

Robin gaped, now more dumbfounded than anything else. "Chattering?"

"Friend, what are you talking about?" Starfire asked, similarly confused.

Beast Boy pointed his finger at his head. "My animal forms. Their minds are all inside my head; literally." He shook his head. "And right now, they just won't shut up; and that was already problematic enough before my tiger form decided to try to take a turn at the driver's seat."

"When did this start?" Raven asked, clearly concerned, but not without a slight twinge of anger in her voice.

Beast Boy sighed. "Might as well," he thought to himself. He looked at Raven. "About 15 minutes after you got me out of the gas."

Raven's eyes instantly narrowed, the sight proving considerably more intimidating with her hood raised over her head, but Robin was first to speak.

"And you tell us about this now?"

"I didn't think it would be that important."

Beast Boy shook his head side to side, now too tired to get irritated. "All the other times my animal forms have started making a commotion in my mind, it's only lasted for at least a few minutes, maybe even an hour tops." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "But clearly, I've now been proven wrong again."

Robin groaned, pinching the bridge of his own in irritation. "Well isn't this just great," he grumbled under his breath.

"Friends," said Starfire. "Could this not perhaps have something to do with this Primetia?"

"Hard to say." Robin sighed, and then shook his head side to side. "I mean, all this hullabaloo Beast Boy's forms are apparently putting up in his head? That doesn't sound like a typical virus symptom."

"Well Beast Boy isn't exactly a typical human either," said Raven. She directed a blank glare, unphased by the annoyed look the Boy Wonder was now directing her way. "And considering how, from what I remember, Beast Boy is almost _never_ sick, he could easily end up reacting in unconventional ways in the rare event he _does_ get sick."

"Friend Raven does have the point," Starfire agreed. "After all, friend Beast Boy has demonstrated in the past the tendency to involuntarily transform whenever he sneezes. And he did have what you call the cold at the time."

"That still wouldn't explain why he hasn't shown or felt any physical or internal signs of sickness," Cyborg broke in. "Even during that time he had a cold when Robin was almost killed by an imaginary Slade, he actually _felt_ sick."

Robin directed a withering glare at Cyborg, clearly not pleased with his friend's somewhat cavalier description of that one particular incident from three years prior, but Cyborg showed no sign of noticing as much.

"But right now? Well you heard what he said earlier. With the exception of all the ruckus going on in his head, he feels perfectly fine. And he's shown no visual or similarly tangible signs of illness. And before you ask Robin, _no_, my scanners _still_ haven't registered any sign of anything out of the ordinary, internal or otherwise. Believe me, I've already scanned, rescanned, and looked over the results from each time at least a hundred times by now. If this Primetia thing is in fact a virus, then there really ought to have been some obvious sign of infection by now. Especially if it's something genetically modified for a bioweapon. After all, I'm sure you know how those kinds of viruses tend to act a heck of a lot faster than in their regular forms."

"Then obviously he's been infected with something he already got infected with once before but has since developed an immunity to."

The founding Titans all looked to the entrance of the makeshift fort that served as the main structure for their campsite. Just in time to see Wildebeest come walking in.

"Wildebeest?" Cyborg asked. "When did you get back here?"

"A short while ago. And before you ask, I overheard enough."

Wildebeest looked over at Robin. "And all that stuff you guys mentioned about viruses? Well that's gotten me thinking."

He walked over to what appeared to be a small filing cabinet, his five fellow Titans gazing silently at him as he moved. He opened the filing cabinet and started to rummage through it. "With Red Star acting as my adoptive father, he felt it necessary to include a variety of topics related to chemistry, medicine, and similar matters amongst my education. However, out of all the viruses and diseases he's taught me about, there's one particularly rare one that's really gotten my attention since I learned about it."

He drew out a manilla folder and opened it. "The especially interesting detail about this virus? All those infected by it are instantly recognizable as much by virtue of being turned green all over." He turned his head to face his friends, pointing his finger at Beast Boy. "And I do mean all over."

Wildebeest allowed about a minute's pause to unfold, just to allow is words to sink in. Then, right as all five of the founding Titans were starting to realize just where their humanoid bovine friend was getting at, Wildebeest nodded, drew out a small set of papers stapled together, and held them in position where Beast Boy in particular would be able to get a good look at it. "Beast Boy," he asked. "Have you ever, at any point in your life, been exposed to the virus Sakutia?"

Beast Boy looked at the papers in Wildebeest's hand, his eyes widening at the sight of the words making it clear that the 'file' he was now holding was indeed about the virus he'd just mentioned. Then he looked at his four fellow founders, all of whom were now looking curiously at him. For about a minute he silently debated on what to say. Then he sighed. "Yes," he stated, nodding his head up and down in the process. "I have."

Robin and the girls raised their eyebrows. Cyborg, however, was very quick to react in a completely different fashion. "You've what?!" He yelled, human eye widened and jaw gaping open. "And you're still alive?! How?!"

Beast Boy sighed. "Long story dude," he grumbled. It was now clear that, like it or not, he'd soon potentially find it necessary to talk about his past.

"And that's a story I'm sure can be talked about later," said Wildebeest, a look in his eyes directed at the changeling that indicated he understood that this was a sensitive matter. "Right now, the important thing to know is that, at some point in his life, he got infected with this virus, but was lucky enough to somehow gain immunity, likely through the same means he got his powers." He pointed back at Beast Boy. "And judging by current available evidence, it would appear that this Primetia you've all been talking about is indeed a bioweapon like Robin suspects; and more specifically, a genetically modified version of Sakutia."

"Interesting theory."

Robin folded his arms across his chest, a pokerfaced look on his face. Clearly, he was willing to consider this possibility, but still needed just a little bit of extra convincing. "Mind if I ask for a few extra details on how you reached this conclusion?"

"Gladly."

Wildebeest looked to Cyborg. "I notice you've still got the most recent scan results on that screen. Any chance you have any images from the last time you gave Beast Boy a medical checkup scanning before today?"

Cyborg thought to himself. "Maybe," he eventually stated before moving back to the computer he'd been using. "Hang on, let me take a look." He looked through several files and programs. Then he nodded. "Yep, here we are." He opened the file. "Now what?"

"Any chance you can allow both those results, and your most recent scans, to be on screen at the same time?"

"Taking care of that now…and…done." Cyborg looked back at Wildebeest. "Anything else?"

As the rest of the Titans watched, Wildebeest drew out a single photo sheet from his folder, placed the folder on top of the filing cabinet, and walked over to Cyborg. Upon reaching Cyborg, he beckoned for the four younger founders to join them. He pointed at the single photo sheet he'd just recently brought out, a photograph of a completely ordinary bloodstream. "For argument's sake, let's assume that this is indeed the way a perfectly healthy and ordinary human's bloodstream looks. Perfectly virus free."

He flipped the sheet of papers he'd previously drawn out to another blood stream photo, and then pointed at it. "_This_," he stated, "is how a human's blood stream has currently been best recorded to look when infected with Sakutia."

Beast Boy took a brief look at the photo in question, only to promptly look away, snapping his eyes closed and shuddering. "No," he thought firmly to himself. "I am not looking at that. I won't!"

Seemingly unaware of how Beast Boy was currently behaving, Wildebeest continued. "Compare these two images with the two currently on the computer screen, and you'll hopefully see what I mean. Granted, as Cyborg appears to have demonstrated, the differences can be a bit hard to see at first glance, but they're otherwise easy to find if you know just what to look for."

"And what exactly might that be?" Robin asked.

"Simple."

Wildebeest gestured at the three Sakutia-based images. "Just look closely enough at any of these three images of a Sakutia infected bloodstream, and you should be able to see what looks like a mixture of chlorophyll pigments and virus cells that look somewhat similar to the kind you'd find in something infected with rabies."

Starfire and Raven looked each other awkwardly in the eyes, completely uncertain just what they were supposed to be looking for. Beast Boy, meanwhile, just simply refused to look. Robin and Cyborg, however, had no such inhibitions, and they carefully examined the three appropriate images.

"Hmm," the boy wonder thought to himself. "I'll admit, I am starting to see what you mean." He nodded his head. "And come to think of it, I think I might also be able to identify a couple subtle differences between these three images."

"Me to," Cyborg agreed. He pointed at the 'healthy Beast Boy' image. "Take this one for instance. The chlorophyll's unchanged, but the virus cells themselves look weaker; or at least, the ones I can find look that way." He pointed at what was now apparently indeed an 'infected Beast Boy' image. "_This_, on the other hand, I can definitely see a serious difference in. I can still see some of the weaker virus cells. But I can also now see a massive amount of what look like those same cells, but on steroids."

To Cyborg's credit, the cells in question that he'd just pointed out did indeed look quite nightmarish, especially in comparison to the ones in the Sakutia image that was on paper instead of on a screen. Even Starfire and Raven couldn't help but agree with Cyborg and Robin's assessment.

"I will admit," Starfire said nervously. "This virus of which we speak does not sound like something I'd wish to risk suffering from." Raven nodded her head, her face blank, but privately feeling that she'd perhaps be wise not to test her natural demonic resilience to most illnesses to the test with this particular virus.

Beast Boy, however, was now finally looking at the images, gaping at them in a mixture of shock, horror, but most of all despair. "I…" he thought to himself. "I thought it was…gone." And indeed, he had thought the Sakutia virus, the same one he'd first gotten infected with so long ago, had been completely eradicated from his body. Then he took another look at the images, taking particular note of the chlorophyll pigments, and he promptly felt angry at himself for being stupid. "Of course, it wasn't," he thought bitterly to himself. "If it were, I wouldn't have stayed green."

But at the same time, he couldn't help now but feel suddenly rather sad. "All that effort," he thought to himself. "It was all…all for…" Then he steeled himself, clenching his fist and shutting his eyes. "NO," he thought to himself. "It was _not_ all for nothing. I'm alive right now, aren't I?! _That_ amounts to something right?!"

He felt the animals in his mind put up another ruckus, this time with even the extinct ones joining in. They were now attempting once more to fight each other for control over his mind and body while he was in this moment of emotionally compromised 'weakness'. But he kept his hold firm. He was _not_ letting them take over his mind again, not as long as he had anything to say about it.

"There is one other thing I can mention about Sakutia."

All the founders, Beast Boy included, looked at Wildebeest once more. The mutated child looked straight at Beast Boy. "The minds of your animal forms," he stated bluntly. "You said something about them making a ruckus inside your head. Tell me, are the thoughts and words they have aggressive or violent in nature?"

Beast Boy briefly raised his eyebrows. He was pretty sure that the answer would have to be pretty obvious if Wildebeest had been around to overhear the moment where his tiger form had briefly taken control of him. But then he decided it was probably best to humor him for the sake of the explanation. "Yes," he answered. "A large number of them are, and the ones that aren't violent are still at least angry or restless."

Wildebeest nodded his head, clearly not at all surprised. "Just as I thought."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

Wildebeest was just about to answer when Beast Boy spoke up. At this point, he figured it was probably about time he faced reality. "Sakutia is a lot like rabies. Granted, there isn't any hydrophobia or frothing at the mouth involved. But one important symptom that Sakutia has in common with rabies is heightened aggression in animals that are infected with it."

"Which would explain the current apparent aggressive state of the minds of your animal forms," Raven noted, quickly catching on.

"Exactly," Wildebeest agreed. He nodded his head. "As I said, Primetia appears to indeed be a genetically modified form of Sakutia. And judging by the current timing, clearly very powerful."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

Wildebeest looked to Beast Boy, silently asking if he wanted to explain, yet still willing to do it himself. Beast Boy gestured for Wildebeest to go ahead and have another turn, and the elementary school aged Titan continued. "The heightened aggression that comes with Sakutia? From what's currently been recorded to science, that phase of the virus usually takes at least three days to start taking affect, maybe even a full week for those who are especially lucky. But as Beast Boy has very clearly told us and demonstrated, the aggression started showing signs of beginning within 15 minutes of infection, and it's only getting stronger as the hours go by." Beast Boy nodded his head, all too aware of the truth in Wildebeest's words.

"But I do not understand," said Starfire. "If the Professor Chang wishes to have this be used a weapon of biological nature, why use a virus that only results in green coloration and heightened aggression?"

"Because the targets that would react in such a way to this virus aren't the ones that would be targeted by people using Primetia."

The younger Titans all looked to Cyborg. The half robot pointed at Beast Boy. "You know how surprised I was about Beast Boy even being alive right now after learning about him having gotten infected with Sakutia before? I wasn't overreacting."

"He's right."

The Titans all looked to Beast Boy, who nodded his head grimly. "Aside from turning green and developing unnatural levels of aggression, all non-human animals known to have been infected by Sakutia are otherwise unaffected. Humans on the other hand…"

He sighed, shaking his head side to side before looking glumly at his friends. "So far, humans are the only known beings that Sakutia has currently been proven lethal towards. No one yet knows why, but for some reason the virus just affects people in ways it either can't or won't affect any other species infected. And furthermore, there's no officially known antidote or cure in existence yet. So, suffice it to say, you're looking at the only known person to have ever been infected by Sakutia and lived to tell the tale."

In the seemingly impossibly long silence that followed the changeling's statement, one could have easily heard a pin drop. But as stunned as Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire were, Raven in particular couldn't help but feel a strong mixture of curiosity and concern mixed in with her own shock. She surreptitiously focused her gaze on Beast Boy as much as she could. At this point, she couldn't help but wonder just what sort of terrible things might have perhaps unfolded in Beast Boy's life prior to joining the Titans, if not perhaps even before joining the Doom Patrol. "Could this have anything to do with that nightmare we caught him in earlier this week?" She thought to herself. "And if not this, what else could have happened to him to cause such bad dreams?"

Robin, meanwhile, was starting to have similar thoughts. For a brief moment, Raven saw a look come on the boy wonder's face that she was certain indicated that he was now very strongly considering having Beast Boy tell everything about his past from before his life as a Titan that could perhaps prove relevant to the current situation. Fortunately, Wildebeest was able to bring focus back to one of the more immediate concerns before Robin had the chance to make it necessary for either Beast Boy to be forced into an uncomfortable discussion or Raven herself to have to resort to diverting Robin's focus herself.

"And that's not all."

The founding Titans all looked to Wildebeest once more, and he pointed at the photo sheet with the Sakutia image. "Take just a close enough look and you'll notice a certain detail that isn't present in the images on the computer screen."

The founders all did as Wildebeest instructed. And after a minute, their eyes widened upon catching sight of another specific type of cell that, true to Wildebeest's word, was completely absent from both of the images on the computer screen. But while the girl were both surprised that they hadn't noticed them before, all three of the male founders were able to recognize just how unnervingly similar this newly noticed virus cell resembled the kind found in malaria.

"As Beast Boy has just recently stated," Wildebeest began. "The exact reason why is currently unknown. But whatever it is, humans the only known species to fall victim to Sakutia that have proven to suffer from the Sakutia symptoms related to malaria. All other species that have currently ever been known to get infected with Sakutia have suffered from the symptoms related to rabies instead. And with that in mind, the phase in which all known non-human animal victims have started to display rabies-like levels of unnatural aggression is the phase where all human victims apart from Beast Boy end up dying."

He pointed at the computer screen. "With a close enough look, you can see that, judging by the evidence on display in the images on the left, whatever it was that allowed Beast Boy to survive was able to both eradicate all of the malarial cells and significantly weaken the rabies cells while leaving the chlorophyll pigments untouched. Whereas in the image on the right, you can see that the malarial cells are once again absent, as well as the fact that the previously weakened rabies cells have now also started sharing living space with the likely stronger and faster acting rabies cells of the Primetia." He lifted a finger as if about to indicate something else important to make note of. "Now, while it is somewhat possible that the specific strand of Primetia used to infect Beast Boy may have already had its malarial cells removed or similarly dealt with prior to its placement in the trap, I also wouldn't be surprised if those same cells were allowed to stay and ended up dying upon entry to Beast Boy's blood stream."

"Well if that latter explanation is true, why infect BB?" Cyborg asked.

"Could Chang have perhaps not been the aware?" Starfire asked. "Or perhaps hoped that this Primetia would be strong enough to override Beast Boy's apparent pre-existing immunity to its virus of origin?"

"I wouldn't hold my breath on that," Raven stated.

"I won't ignore either of those possibilities," Wildebeest admitted. "But I also have to agree with Raven. And that in mind, I do have a theory that I'm reasonably certain is the more likely explanation." He looked to Robin. "And something tells me that you're probably already thinking along similar lines."

Sure enough, the boy wonder was already nodding his head in agreement. "More likely than not, there's something else that Chang has in mind to go alongside his creation and possible attempted sale of the Primetia that he specifically needs Beast Boy for. And if it's not Chang himself who wants Beast Boy, then perhaps someone else that Chang may very well be working for."

"Well even if that is true, why infect him?" Cyborg asked. "I mean, sorry if I sound redundant asking. But seriously ya'll, how would that help? I mean, even if he's capable of getting infected without dying, I doubt that the potential ultra-rage issues he could soon end up having wouldn't be very useful for anyone who wants him alive while infected with this stuff."

The Titans all looked back to Robin, who thought to himself. "I'll admit, I can't say I know for sure." He slammed his right fist on top of his left palm. "But right now, my best guess is to perhaps give Beast Boy and the rest of us extra motivation to reach that lab."

"And in doing so, let Beast Boy come right into their grasp for whatever secondary objective Chang or whoever else might be involved wants to use him for," said Raven.

"Exactly," Robin agreed. "And even in the event that there turns out to be some other important factor involved that we've missed while looking through all these images, I also get the feeling that, regardless of just what sort of plans might be in mind for Beast Boy, it would be wise not to ignore the possibility that Chang may very well have created an antidote to use as extra bait that we don't yet know about."

Raven seemed unconvinced. "I wouldn't get our hopes up about that," she said cautiously. "You heard what Beast Boy said. No known antidote or cure has ever been found for Sakutia." Beast Boy nodded his head. Truth be told, he was feeling just as skeptical right now over the possibility as Raven herself currently appeared to be, if not more so.

"That doesn't mean there isn't one," Starfire stated optimistically.

"Agreed."

The founders looked back to Wildebeest, who was already nodding his head. "Like Robin said, we shouldn't ignore the possibility. And honestly, when you think about it long enough, it's not entirely illogical. I mean, from what Red Star tells me, these was a Chang amongst the scientists who gave him the serum that allowed him to gain his powers. And from what he's learned from you guys since joining the Titans about the Chang we're currently talking about, plus what little exposure he got during our big battle at the Brotherhood of Evil's headquarters…"

"You think they might be one and the same?" Beast Boy asked, his eyebrow raised in half curiosity and half hope.

"Forgive me if I sound redundant," Wildebeest stated, a grin on his face. "But we certainly can't ignore the possibility."

"And even if they're not the same person," Cyborg began. "For all the mistakes and occasional bad decisions he's made in our experiences with him, he certainly can be plenty smart when he needs to be. And if this is the same Chang that helped Red Star gain his powers, then he'd probably have to be extra smart."

"I can certainly believe that," Robin agreed. "And even without the especially good reason I have to say as much, there's also timing to consider. For all we know, he's probably spent at least several months working on this. Depending on just how much time he's been working with Sakutia samples for the sake of this Primetia project since his defrosting, he could very well have perhaps had the time, knowledge, and resources to at least make an antidote for Primetia."

The Titans all thought to themselves, carefully weighing all the information, theoretical or otherwise, that they'd currently gone over. Beast Boy, however, couldn't help but place particularly strong mental focus on one particular detail that even now still continued to weigh heavily on him despite the conversation having long since passed by that particular topic. And at the exact same time he thought extra-long and hard about this one specific detail that even now refused to allow itself to be forgotten, he also felt the minds of his animal forms continuing to restlessly whisper amongst each other in his mind while simultaneously keeping themselves ready for the chance to attempt a takeover in a moment of weakness. Before long, the words of his friends completely failed to reach his ears as both the whispers of his now increasingly rage addled animal forms and his own thoughts about that one ever so persistently worrisome detail took the full brunt of all his focus and attention. And even as he continued to devote his attention to these two specific matters, he found himself adding a third worrisome thought to his focus.

Even now the memory of that one brief moment from not too long ago in which he'd lost control and found himself totally subservient under the will of his tiger form, helpless to do anything but watch as it had first taken absolute control of his mind before then allowing itself to take physical form with his body and engaging in a brief show of aggression against his friends. And he would not forget it in a hurry. And though he had been lucky enough to reassert his own control before anyone had gotten hurt, what would have happened if he hadn't? And worse, what if he _did_ end up hurting one of his friends the next time such a slipup occurred? He already had precious little reason to believe that this would be the only time in which one of his forms would briefly take control of his mind and body while they were all in the state they were currently in. And when that happened, what would he be able to do, or even think, if he ended up hurting one of his friends in the process? Killing one of them? If Raven were the victim? And what if, despite the current hope passing between his friends on the matter, there in fact wasn't an antidote? Or there was but it didn't get to him in time…?"

In that instant, he clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and closed his eyes. He steeled his mind to the absolute best of his current ability. He now knew exactly what he was going to do. In fact, if he was to keep his friends safe right now, it was what he _had_ to do.

"If there is an antidote," Beast Boy began. The other Titans all looked to him. He sighed, steeling himself up once again as best as he could. "Now or never," he thought to himself. He looked straight at his five friends. At this point, he needed to speak his current decision aloud as soon as possible. If he didn't get it done and over with soon, he'd almost definitely lose his nerve. "If there is an antidote…I…I wish you the best of luck finding it and getting it to me dudes."

For a single brief moment, there was complete silence between the six young heroes. The seconds passed, each of them seeming impossibly long. But as this happened, all four of Beast Boy's fellow founders found themselves slowly starting to realize, if not outright suspect, just what it was Beast Boy was implying in his current words. Wildebeest, young as he was, similarly started to have a strong feeling about the same. Eventually, Starfire was the first to finally break the silence. "Friend," she stated, a look of half concern and half despair on her eyes as she stared at her green friend who even now felt to her like just as much of a younger brother as her actual blood related brother. "What are you saying?"

Beast Boy sighed, desperate to keep his resolve. "I'm sorry Star, but what I'm saying is that I think you guys may need to continue on to that lab without me."

In that instant, with Beast Boy's words having explicitly confirmed what they were all starting to suspect, Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg tensed up, clearly seconds away from yelling out how bad an idea they considered this to be while Wildebeest merely stared at the changeling in confusion. Beast Boy had even gone ahead and braced himself for the yelling when Raven suddenly spoke before it even had a chance to begin.

"May I ask why?"

The Titans all looked to Raven.

"Say what now?" Cyborg asked.

The sorceress looked to Cyborg. "I'm asking Beast Boy to explain why he wants to stay here and have us go to the lab without him."

"Well what good reason for that could he possibly have?" Robin asked.

Raven narrowed her eyes at him. "Well we're not going to find that out if we don't let him try to explain as much. Are we?"

There was a pause. Then Starfire looked to her boyfriend. "I have to admit," she stated. "Raven does have the point."

Robin nodded, now looking suitably chastened. Then he turned to face Beast Boy once more. "Very well then," he began. "Out of respect for you and Raven, we shall allow you to state your case. Why exactly do you think we should leave to take care of this business as Chang's lab without you?"

Beast Boy took a deep breath, closed his eyes in the process, and then exhaled. He opened his eyes. "Well for starters, it's partially to keep you guys safe."

"Clarify," said Robin.

"That incident with my tiger form? That's probably not going to be my last incident as long as I'm infected with this gas."

The shapeshifter hung his head. "You guys were lucky. The presence of the starbolts were able to scare the tiger just enough for me to take back control before it could cause you guys any harm. But what if I hadn't been able to regain control so quickly? What if I _had_ managed to hurt you guys then? What if I manage to hurt you next time one of my forms takes control of me? What if I kill you guys?" He sighed, and directed a half exhausted and half angry glare at Robin. "I already got read the riot act when I circumstantially framed myself for Adonis's attack on Raven the night I first turned into the Beast, not to mention for almost _every_ single screwup I've ever made. Last thing I need is to vindicate the initially intended existence of those Beast Busters you tried to design, right?"

Wildebeest raised his eyebrows, completely confused as to what Beast Boy was referring to. Raven and Cyborg, however, promptly glared at Robin and Starfire, who both winced as they remembered all too well what the changeling had just now brought up.

"And the crazy thing?" Beast Boy continued. "Right now, the Beast is currently one of the few forms I have that _isn't_ currently acting the way most of my other forms are currently acting; but I can't really guarantee that he'll stay that way. And with how most of my other forms are now starting to prove just as unstable and difficult to control as the Beast himself usually is, well then that's just extra danger I could be putting you guys in if I stay while infected with this stuff."

The rest of the Titans all looked in each other's eyes. "I'll admit," said Cyborg. "Surprisingly mature reasoning."

"There's more."

The other Titans all looked back to Beast Boy.

"Remember how we were just talking about Professor Chang or someone else possibly wanting me for something else they've got planned? Well if that's true, why make the job easier for them by bringing me right where they want me? I mean, I already ended up doing exactly that just by allowing me into that gas trap. If whoever it is that has something planned with me in mind wants me that badly, he can come after me himself. I'm not doing his work for him; not if I can help it."

At this, Robin found himself nodding his head. He had to admit, Beast Boy had brought up yet another very valid point. Clearly, the changeling really _had_ thought this through.

"One last thing."

Beast Boy took a deep breath and then exhaled. Now was the potentially most negative reason behind his current decision, and the one he _really_ didn't like thinking about. "As much as you all appear to be hoping that there does in fact turn out to be an antidote available at this lab for Primetia…well…we still can't ignore the possibility that there isn't one." He sighed again. "And if that is in fact the case…well…there's no other way to put it; I'm not going to be able to keep the effects of it at bay forever. And regardless of how many times I do manage to successfully regain control from one of my forms, once this virus has progressed far enough…"

He hung his head, shaking it side to side in the process. He sighed again. Then he looked back at his friends once more, a sad and weary look on his face. "Even if by some miracle I do manage to win out over all my animal forms and retain my human form, I certainly won't be in any mental condition to act like myself, let alone any ordinary human."

"He's right."

The founding Titans all looked to Wildebeest, who nodded his head. "Sakutia may not be fatal to nonhuman animals the way rabies is, but rabies at least eventually kills all its victims on its own. Sakutia? It just leaves animal victims doomed to spend the rest of their lives as mindless raging monsters that have to rely on some other factor coming along to put them out of their misery." He then looked at Wildebeest. "Though considering one particular unique factor that applies to you, even _that_ could honestly be one of the better case scenarios."

The founders all raised their eyebrows. "What do you mean?" Robin asked.

"Yes friend," said Starfire. "What do you mean?"

Wildebeest sighed and shook his head side to side. "Well as we've all established by now, Beast Boy's got the minds of all his countless animal forms warring with each other against his natural human mind. And while it's entirely possible that one of the myriad minds inside his head will prove strong enough to stand triumphant over all the others and assume permanent control if it comes to as much, there's still another, arguably even less pleasant, possibility we have to consider." He looked to Raven. "What if none of the minds win? What if they all end up destroying each other over the course of the war the virus is manipulating them into fighting?"

Starfire and the boy founders briefly remained confused. Raven, however, instantly found her eyes widening in clear understanding of what Wildebeest was going. Beast Boy was the first to notice, and he looked to her. "Ok, I know what that look means. What's Wildebeest saying could happen?"

The rest of the founders all looked to Raven as well. The half demoness sighed, and then hung her head. "He's saying," she began, "that if neither your mind, nor any of the various animal minds inside you prove strong enough to stand triumphant as the overall victor, then they'll all end up destroying each other. And if that happens, your mind will snap and…"

She briefly paused, letting silence hang in the air for an entire minute as she seemed to struggle to finish what she was trying to say. All four of her fellow founders were starting to get very worried indeed before she finally mustered up the strength to say what Wildebeest had already been getting at. The sorceress looked at Beast Boy. "And if that happens, you'd be reduced to a catatonic drooling shell."

Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg's eyes instantly widened in shock and horror. Beast Boy's own eyes briefly did the same, but only took a few seconds to take on a somber and grimly accepting expression. He nodded his head, sighing exhaustedly as if resigning himself to this potential fate. "I'll admit, that's definitely a lot worse than being a mindless raging animal."

"Oh screw that!"

The other Titans all looked to Cyborg, who was now rigorously shaking his head side to side. "Good God man! How on Earth is _this_ supposed to be a good reason for us to head off to Chang's lab here without you?!"

"I must agree," said Starfire. She looked to Beast Boy. "This does not at all sound like an example of the proof that we should leave this area without you."

Robin nodded his head, clearly in agreement with his girlfriend and second in command. "I hate to say this, but they both have a point. If anything, the possibility of you devolving into a mindless animal or drooling vegetable sounds more like a reason for us to keep you with us."

For about a minute, all the other Titans kept their gaze on Beast Boy, waiting to see how he'd respond. Then the changeling sighed, and nodded his head in understanding. "I understand perfectly." He took a deep breath, and then exhaled once more. "But I figured, if there turned out not to be an antidote available, then it would perhaps be easier for all of us if we'd already said goodbye before hand and I'd left so that you wouldn't have to subsequently watch the inevitable."

At the sound of this, the rest of the founding Titans all looked each other in the eyes, all sharing the exact same look of discomfort and fear. And for good reason. After all, very rarely, if ever, had they ever seen or heard Beast Boy acting so grim and fatalistic as he currently was. Truth be told, seeing their jolly green changeling friend behave like this was especially unsettling to see indeed considering how at times quite annoyingly irreverent, carefree, and out of control he usually tended to act. And as much as he tended to get on their nerves with the way he usually behaved, they also had to admit that this deflated and metaphorically lifeless being that he was now seemingly turning into was not something they were willing to trade the occasionally irritating, yet still endearing, friend they all knew and loved. They hadn't wanted him back to being his usual self after ending up in a state similar to his current depressed after Terra's betrayal, and very briefly had a relapse of that after an unfortunate encounter with her at Murakami High in which Terra had tried to pull a 'break his heart to save him' ploy by tricking him into thinking that she'd completely forgotten about him and her entire past life as a Titan before her betrayal and later petrification. And they certainly weren't going to let him revert to yet another such state now, not without a fight.

In that instant, Robin slammed his right fist on his left palm. Already he'd thought up an idea on just what he was going to say. He looked back to Beast Boy, a firm and determined look on his face. "Well that may be what you think Beast Boy," he stated, his tone indicating no room for argument. "But with the knowledge of just what could end up befalling you if this virus progresses far enough without you getting cured, we're not letting you stay here on your own."

Beast Boy's eyes widened, and he briefly tensed up as if about to try to protest.

"However," Robin then stated, lifting his finger to forestall Beast Boy's response. "We are also not going to force you to come to Chang's lab with us."

At this, Beast Boy and the other Titans all gaped at Robin in confusion. Robin nodded his head, understanding perfectly why his teammates were currently confused. "More specifically, here's a compromise I've currently thought up on how to handle this situation." He looked to Beast Boy. "While I'm admittedly still not fully comfortable with the idea of you not coming with us, I can nonetheless respect your maturity in wanting to both keep us safe and make it difficult for Chang or whoever else might be planning something for you to get ahold of you. And for those reasons, I will allow you to abstain from the expedition to the lab at this current time."

The rest of the Titans all found themselves nodding in approval of the maturity Robin himself was showing in so clearly proving himself willing to respect Beast Boy's wishes.

"However," the Boy Wonder then continued. "What I now wish to suggest is that, just to be on the safe side, one of us stay with you to keep you company while the rest of us head over to take care of business at the lab."

Beast Boy started thinking to himself, carefully considering Robin's suggestion. But before he could finish his thought process, Wildebeest suddenly straightened up to full height. "I volunteer."

The older Titans all looked at the mutated child. "You sure?" Robin asked.

Wildebeest nodded. "Positive."

"It's going to be dangerous," said Cyborg.

Wildebeest chuckled. "Story of our lives."

He lifted a finger as if to forestall further comments. "And yes, I know I'm still elementary school aged, but last time I checked, so are those three other kids on the team that Raven likes to take care of."

"True enough," Raven agreed.

"And all that aside, I'm arguably one of the best qualified to handle Beast Boy in his current condition."

Robin raised his eyebrow. "And how might that be the case?"

"Simple." Wildebeest nodded his head. "Much like him, I have animal instincts and an animalistic side of my mind. Granted, it's not exactly the same as what he's got. But compared to you guys, it's the closest we've got. And it should be just enough for me to have an idea of when things are about to get dangerous and have time to prepare."

"But what about your vengeance against the society of the wildebeests?" Starfire asked.

Wildebeest sighed. "I'll admit, I'm plenty tempted to go after them. But let's be real. All I even know so far is that this lab _might_ have ties to them. I don't know for sure if the Wildebeest Society is even directly involved in what's currently going on with Chang and this Primetia virus. And regardless of whether they are, revenge can wait. Especially if I'm putting it on hold for the sake of a friend."

The founding Titans all looked each other in the eyes, carefully considering what Wildebeest had said. Then everyone looked to Beast Boy.

"What do you say Beast Boy?" Robin asked.

The changeling thought to himself. Then he nodded. "If it will make you guys feel comfortable, then consider me sold." He looked to Wildebeest, giving the mutated child a thumbs up with a small grin starting to form on his face. "Looks like I'm on babysitting duty dude!"

Wildebeest narrowed his eyes. "Babysitting? I'll have you know I can care for myself just fine! If anything, I'd say _you're_ the one getting babysat by me!"

Cyborg chuckled. "Well this ought to be fun."

"Well if that's settled, I suppose it's time we get back down to business."

Robin looked to the two beastly Titans. "About how much time do you think there is before the virus reaches the point of no cure?"

Beast Boy shrugged. He honestly had no idea what to say. Wildebeest, on the other hand…

"At best, maybe 2 or 3 days, counting today."

"No time like the present then," said Cyborg.

"Agreed," said Starfire.

Robin nodded his head. "We'd best start on our way to the lab very soon then."

Raven nodded in agreement. Then she levitated over to Beast Boy.

The two chromatically challenged heroes stared each other face to face. "You sure you're ok with all this?"

The changeling nodded. "I am."

"Very well."

The sorceress placed her hands on her friend's shoulders. "But know this, if there is an antidote available at that lab, we _will_ make sure we get it to you. I promise you that."

She levitated over to the entrance to the fort before Beast Boy even had a chance to respond, Cyborg walking up to where she'd been standing. The half robot Titan placed a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "What she said buddy." Cyborg nodded. "You and Wildebeest take care of yourselves now."

"Can do dude," said Beast Boy. Wildebeest chuckled.

Cyborg joined up with Raven, Starfire taking her turn next. For a few seconds, she stared half happily and half sadly at Beast Boy, her eyes showing that she clearly couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't either sound redundant or cause her to break down in tears. Then she wordlessly gave him a crushing bearhug. Beast Boy braced himself as best as he could, not daring to complain about the immensely tight embrace. After all, he didn't want to risk hurting her feelings when she already seemed very reluctant in her acceptance of his choice.

When Starfire finally finished and flew over to join Cyborg and Raven, Robin walked calmly over. "Well Beast Boy," the Boy Wonder managed to say, "I'm still not fully comfortable with what we're about to do. But out of respect for your wishes and surprising maturity in your thought process, I shall still allow this current plan to unfold. And like Raven and Cyborg said, we will make sure you get the antidote if there is one."

Beast Boy nodded. "I understand."

"However." The Boy Wonder raised a finger as if to emphasize importance. "I want you to promise me one thing."

"I'm listening."

"In the event something happens to us, I want you to promise me that, if you are able, you will come along over to help us."

Beast Boy thought to himself. For a brief moment, he considered saying no. For now he'd thought of another unpleasant possibility. What if the active Primetia cells managed to revive and reactivate the deadened Sakutia cells still inside him? He had a bad feeling that, if that happened, then the amount of time available for his friends to find an antidote, assuming it even existed, would no doubt be even shorter than Wildebeest had estimated. But then he nodded. After all, as good as his reasons for staying behind were, he knew that his friends were more important, and there was no way he could say otherwise in good conscience. He'd have no problem coming to save them if they got in trouble, as long as the Primetia didn't rob him of the ability to do so of course. His mind made up, he extended his right arm and shook the Boy Wonder's hand.

"Consider it done."

**And just like that, I've finally posted a new chapter! Happy new year everyone! And here's to hoping I continue to try my absolute best to keep my stories updated at a reasonably timely pace. And here's me also hoping you enjoy, read, and review (remember, an exact minimum of one review is required for this new chapter before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted). All in all, have fun everybody!**

**Coming up Next: Beast Boy and Wildebeest find themselves on a wild trek through the jungle while the rest of the Titans set out for Chang's lab. In the process, they find themselves dealing with some unique new obstacles...but also potentially meet a pair of unique new allies.**


	9. A Beastly New Pair of Allies

**Hey everybody! Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day and that you haven't lost faith in me, because I now finally present the newest chapter! In this chapter, now that the rest of the Titans are off to Chang's lab, Beast Boy and Wildebeest find themselves going on a wild adventure in the Upper Lamumban jungles. And during these adventures, they find themselves encountering some unpleasant unique obstacles, but also find themselves potentially on the verge of making some equally unique new allies. Sound worth a read after this super long wait? I certainly hope so!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you all that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. The only things I do own are slight twists and alterations I've made for Wildebeest's backstory as well as a pair of OCs that get introduced in this chapter, plus some unique matters of interpretation for a certain pair of cryptids that ****_also_**** appear in this chapter. All that said and done, onward with the fic everybody!**

**Chapter 8:**

**A Beastly New Pair of Allies**

"I still can't believe you actually agreed to let me tag along with you."

Beast Boy sighed, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "I'm as surprised as you are," he stated sarcastically.

At the moment, the two beastly Titans were heading back in the direction of where Wildebeest had originally set up camp. After the other Titans had said their goodbyes and gotten Beast Boy's promise for aid, they had left almost immediately. And not too long afterward, Beast Boy had decided for him and Wildebeest to 'strike camp' and transfer all the 'nonessential' items back to the Titans West T-ship as well as the 'mini-ship' that Wildebeest had used to transport himself to the area in the first place. And now, with all the 'nonessential' items transferred back to their respective transports, they were now heading back into the jungle.

"Even so," Wildebeest continued, "I'm glad you agreed."

"Charmed."

"No really," said Wildebeest. "I mean, when I really think about it, I'm actually kind of glad I don't have to go to that lab now."

Beast Boy immediately raised his eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Well sure, I know I talked a lot about how much I wanted to put a stop to the Wildebeest Society's activities and take them down so nobody else would have to undergo the life I underwent in their care. But at the same time…"

The young mutant sighed and shook his horned and furry head side to side. "Well honestly, assuming that the Wildebeest Society _are_ in fact involved, my past with them is kinda scary to even _think_ about revisiting, let alone actively getting involved with." He looked to Beast Boy, a surprisingly sage like look on his face. "And judging by how you behaved during parts of our earlier talk with the others, I get the feeling you know _exactly_ how that feels."

This briefly put Beast Boy at a loss for words. But then he eventually nodded, a look of sober acceptance on his face. He certainly couldn't argue with the Wildebeest had just brought up. "I suppose you're right," he admitted.

Wildebeest nodded once more. "Don't get me wrong, I know it's entirely likely I will perhaps have to face my past with the Wildebeest Society again at some point or other. But at the same time, I just can't help but feel that, as long as I can, I should keep trying to avoid it all the same. It just feels easier and less frightening, you know?"

"I get the feeling perfectly dude."

Beast Boy nodded his head, ignoring the mental glare he was receiving from the Beast and the aggressive and tense snarling and similar vocalizations from the rest of his animal forms. "It always feels more comfortable to keep your distance from stuff like that."

Wildebeest nodded his own head in agreement. "Of course, when the time finally comes, I'll go through with it nonetheless." He looked back at Beast Boy. "And I very much hope the same will be said for you."

_This_ was enough to cause Beast Boy to both pause in speech as well as in movement. Wildebeest even managed to take several steps ahead of the changeling before noticing. The mutant turned his head to gaze behind him at Beast Boy. "I mean it. As painful as you might find it, you're very likely going to have to face your own past again just as much as I am of having to someday face my own."

Beast Boy briefly moved as if about to try to object; but then he paused, grimacing as he found himself unable to think of an adequate response against what Wildebeest had said. Then he hung his head, sighing wearily.

"Don't take this the wrong way," said Wildebeest. "I may not know exactly what happened, but I could tell from how I saw you behave during our talk earlier that, whatever happened to you before you became a Titan was seriously unpleasant. And I'm not going to force you to talk about it. But at the same time, sooner or later, one's past will always catch up. And at the very least, someday or other, you should at least tell your fellow founders, or at the very least tell Raven or Cyborg."

"Why?"

"Because keeping negative stuff of emotional or mental natures bottled up generally isn't healthy."

Wildebeest looked to Beast Boy once more. "I may only be elementary school aged, and not get the chance to show it off very much due to how recently I got this communication collar, but I'm smarter than I let on. And I know that you have a lot of pain inside you that you try to hide with your behavior as the team clown. Trust me, if you ever want to truly ever be as happy again as you pretend to be, you need to vent out what you've still got hidden in you. And yes, I know you've already vented quite a lot last month over the course of the days leading up to Valentine's Day, but you still have something else still bottled up in you that needs to also be let out."

The mutant looked ahead. "And even if not all four of your fellow founders, then I say you should at least tell Cyborg and Raven because of how Cyborg is your best friend and Raven I get the feeling you clearly fancy."

Beast Boy promptly sent a withering glare Wildebeest's way…but not without a slight blush coming on his cheeks. At the same time, he was also carefully considering Wildebeest's words. "Maybe he's right," he thought grudgingly to himself. "Maybe I should tell them about all that stuff sometime."

Beast Boy suddenly felt Wildebeest's hand come up against his chest, and he reflexively jerked to a halt. He snapped his head to face the young mutant, a half annoyed and half confused look on his face and a snappy remark already on the tip of his tongue…only to immediately hold it back when he saw Wildebeest making a 'shush' gesture towards his lip with a seemingly frightened look on his face.

"Shush," Wildebeest hissed. He then pointed in the direction he and Beast Boy had been walking. "Listen," he whispered seconds later.

The changeling did so, and his eyes widened when he heard the sound of what appeared to be angry bovid grunting and annoyed human grumbling. And within a few minutes of listening, the latter noise became considerably clearer and easier to understand. And what the people in question turned out to be saying proved more than enough reason for the two beastly Titans to be wary.

"The evidence the informant gave us indicated it had holed up somewhere around this area," said a somewhat high-pitched voice. "It's not my fault that it isn't here right this very moment."

"And yet there is no sign of it having even been here at all," growled a deeper and more gravelly voice. A series of angry sounding grunts split the air as if the more apparently animalistic members of this group agreed.

"And that's supposed to be my fault?"

"You're the one who led us all the way here for the current results."

"Yeah well, I'm just going by what the informant told me. It's not my fault he didn't tell us that Project Baby Wildebeest left while we were traveling here after getting the news."

"Assuming it was even here at all."

Beast Boy looked nervously at Wildebeest, who nodded. It was now clear that they were now eavesdropping on a contingent of Wildebeest Society members.

"Looks like your past decided to get itself involved with you instead of waiting for you to get involved with it," Beast Boy whispered.

"No kidding," Wildebeest whispered back in response, nodding his head in the process.

"Just because you don't see any evidence of the matter does not automatically mean that it was never here," insisted the higher pitched voice, now very much sounding annoyed. "For all we know, it may have just left this area and been smart enough to hide evidence of its presence and travels when it left."

"And how are we supposed to find it now? Regardless of whether it was ever here or not? Answer me that why don't you?"

"Enough," growled a deep voice, clearly belonging to the ringleader of the group. "Arguing senselessly like this will not help us determine the current whereabouts of Project Baby Wildebeest."

"Any idea why they want you back so badly?" Beast Boy asked in a whisper.

Wildebeest hissed for Beast Boy to be quiet. "I'll explain later," he whispered tersely.

"Why are we even trying to go after that lost cause?" Hissed a raspy voice, noticeably different from the other three in that this one clearly belonged to a woman instead of a man. "Surely our time and resources could be better spent right now trying to find and recapture the two more recent escapees of completely different species that our colleagues at the sister location were clearly too incompetent to keep under their custody."

"Do you not remember why we created it in the first place?" The deep voiced leader hissed. "Project Baby Wildebeest was supposed to be our key to proper full control of all our artificially created human wildebeest genetic hybrid soldiers. Created entirely from injecting human DNA into a frozen wildebeest embryo rather then through our previous means of using a mutation ray, it was supposed to be powerful enough to keep all the other wildebeest hybrids in line under its hoof yet loyal enough to us to allow us to properly pull the strings without having to worry about occasionally slipping up and making ourselves look weak in front of the herd. Project Baby Wildebeest was our key to rising above being just a generic crime cartel with a side degree in genetic experimentation and being a force to be reckoned with."

Beast Boy silently whistled, and looked to Wildebeest, who nodded his head somberly. "Yep," the young mutant grunted sadly. "That's how and why I was born."

"And while we're at it, you're one to talk calling our sister location colleagues incompetent. Last time I checked; it was _your_ job to ensure that it was properly nurtured."

"Well _sorry_," growled the raspy voiced woman, not sounding remotely apologetic. "But newsflash, I'm one of your chief scientists, not a glorified babysitter for a dumb animal! A job like that would have been far suited for one of our underlings than for someone of my talents!"

"Nevertheless, it was still the secondary task we assigned to you once you'd finished creating it and allowing it to be successfully born," the deep voiced leader insisted. "And you couldn't even be bothered to do it properly."

Another round of grunts filled the area as if in agreement with the leader.

"He's right," said another less raspy female voice. "It was already technically your child. You were the one who created it after all. And as a mother myself, I know the way a child _should_ be raised. And it certainly isn't the way you tried to do so."

"Indeed," said the gravelly voiced man. "You were basically no better than Frollo was to Quasimodo. You were cold, distant, barely interacted with it at all, and only gave it enough necessary care to keep it alive."

"Like I said," hissed the raspy voiced scientist. "I'm one of your top scientists, not a babysitter. I had more important things to do than demean myself by acting like a parent to a stupid beast. You lot may have had high hopes for it, but it was just another project to me, and it will be a chilly day in Hell before I even consider acting otherwise."

"Yet because of this very attitude," the deep voiced leader broke in, "Project Baby Wildebeest was so starved of parental attention that when the opportunity arose in the form of that fiendishly strong ginger haired Mexican we captured and planned to mutate with panther DNA, it immediately latched onto her and started to view it as its mother instead when she so much as showed it even the most basic of decencies. And since you couldn't even be bothered to inform us of that development until you were literally forced to do so after we both caught her playing a game with it _and_ caught you absentmindedly reading a book five hallways away from where the game was happening, it was too late. By the time we finally went to immediately try to remove Project Panthera from the equation the very next day, Project Baby Wildebeest's bond and attachment to it had grown strong enough to allow it to fight back against us to save its new mother and subsequently continue using its powers against us to allow itself and Project Panthera to escape!"

"Well we never would have had to worry about developments like that happening if you'd just let me program it to be mindlessly obedient!"

"And have it be so much of a puppet to our will that it would be incapable of making any decisions whatsoever on its own, and completely susceptible of falling victim to a coup from the rest of the herd the instant the rest of the mutants tried to test it without any of us being available to guide it through?!" Growled the gravelly voiced man. "Are you mad?!"

The wind blew gently across the two beastly titans, and both their ears stood on end at the sound of a particularly urgent sounding bellowing noise from where the Wildebeest Society members were gathered. This sense of alarm soon proved well founded when they heard the voice of the higher pitched man say, "The scent tracking hybrid, it's making the call! It's got Project Baby Wildebeest's scent!"

"Well then what are you waiting for? Send the herd after it!"

"Time to go," Wildebeest immediately whimpered.

"Agreed," Beast Boy gulped.

The two beastly Titans hurried to their left deeper into the jungle, the sound of the bellowing hostile wildebeest hybrids and stampeding footsteps already splitting the air from the direction in which they'd originally been heading.

. . . . .

"Can you go any faster in this form?!"

Beast Boy snorted irritably, the fact that he was currently in his black rhino form for the sake of acting as a mount for Wildebeest robbing him the ability to respond otherwise as he charged through the jungle as fast as the forms natural speed, plus the jungle environment, would allow. And even now, despite this fact, he and Wildebeest could still hear the hostile wildebeest mutants chasing after them.

"HARD LEFT!"

Beast Boy instantly reacted, just barely managing to skid to a stop in time to safely make his way around a particularly large tree that he'd been at risk of blindly charging into. The changeling grunted in a makeshift attempt at indicating thanks.

"Why do you dare run from these weaklings who pursue us?" Grumbled the black rhino form's mind. "I am more than capable of fighting my battles."

"Shut up," Beast Boy's human mind snorted while keeping his physical body moving the way he wanted it.

Their pursuers only continued to sound like they were relatively close behind, and so Wildebeest and Beast Boy continued to flee, the latter resorting to using his rhino form's horn and considerable strength to start smashing and bashing any obstacles that could be successfully destroyed in such fashion out of the way rather than trying to get around them. But inevitably, they eventually made a mistake, and so found themselves blindly charging forward to the point of accidentally sending themselves stumbling down the side of a hill.

Soon after landing, Beast Boy unconsciously reverted back to human form, and he and Wildebeest both got back up on their feet with slight difficulty. "Ow," Beast Boy grumbled. "That hurt."

"Oh, you think?"

The sound of running feet and bovine grunting once again filled the air from behind the two Titans. Beast Boy was quick to react. "We've gotta go!"

"Wait!"

Beast Boy skidded to a stop against Wildebeest's hand, directing a half surprised and half confused look at the young mutant. "Dude! What are you…?!"

"Beast Boy," Wildebeest stated in a nervous tone. "Aren't dinosaurs supposed to be extinct outside Kole and G'nark's old home?"

"What's that have to do with anything?!"

"If they are, then what are those things in front of us?!"

Beast Boy looked where Wildebeest was pointing, and his eyes promptly widened at the unexpected sight that lay several feet ahead. "Dude!"

Indeed, the sight before them was quite surprising, yet also awe inspiring at the same time. Standing in a tense standoff, facing each other while snarling and grumbling, were a pair of what appeared to be dinosaurs. Specifically, a large sauropod-like creature with blue-gray scales was standing opposite what appeared to be a red scaled t-rex-like creature with yellow lightning bolt shaped stripes lining across its back alongside a spinosaurus-like sail. The carnivorous beast snarled, its red eyes narrowed and jarringly sharp teeth gleaming like daggers in the sunlight filtering through the leaves of the jungle canopy. The sauropod grumbled, its yellow eyes narrowed and its left front foot pawing the ground like a bull as its tail swung threateningly side to side.

"I'll admit," said Beast Boy, a giddy smile on his face in spite of himself. "This is pretty cool to see."

"Agreed," Wildebeest admitted. "Too bad they're currently standing right between us and our easiest chances of escaping our pursuers."

And indeed, the two Titans were now in a bit of a pickle. With the unexpected presence of the two battling dinosaurs, the only chance Beast Boy and Wildebeest had of escaping the Wildebeest Society mutants currently chasing them was to either waste precious time trying to move around the dinosaurs or risk getting stomped on or similarly falling victim to an unfortunate death by attempting to run right between them.

The tyrannosaur roared, the sound echoing loudly throughout the area, and the sauropod bellowed, rearing up on its hind legs while waving its forelegs threateningly as if preparing to slam them against its attacker's head or chest. The carnivore promptly made the first move, lunging its head towards the sauropod with its jaws open and ready to chomp. The sauropod slammed its front feet against its enemy's head, sending it staggering backwards. The tyrannosaur roared in rage after regaining its balance, and then swung its tail, only to end up ineffectually smacking it against the base of its would-be food's neck.

The sauropod bellowed in annoyance, and swung its neck at its attacker, its head smashing into the carnivore's neck and sending it stumbling once more. The carnivore was still snarling irritably as it regained its balance when the sauropod tried to further capitalize on its advantage by swinging its tail. But this time the tyrannosaur was ready, and it snapped its teeth around the tip of the sauropod's tail. The sauropod bellowed in pain, but quickly snapped its teeth around the tyrannosaur's sail right at the carnivore was starting to try to knock it off balance by pulling its tail. The tyrannosaur, knowing all too well how bad it would be for it if its sail got damaged, let go of the sauropod's tail to try to snap at the herbivore's briefly exposed throat. But the sauropod was quick enough to let go of the sail and rear its neck and head back to a safe position in time for the carnivore's jaws to snap harmlessly at thin air. Outraged, the tyrannosaur roared savagely at the sauropod, the herbivore letting out an equally furious bellow.

The tyrannosaur reared up, its sail starting to glow with a boiling red aura while smoke started rising from within its clenched jaws. The sauropod glared witheringly at its would-be hunter, electricity starting to crackle around its own jaws. Then the dinosaurs opened their mouths and let loose with what turned out to be powerful breath attacks, with the tyrannosaur unleashing a jet of literally blood red flames while the sauropod shot out a brilliant bolt of white lightning. The two breath attacks crashed together in the middle of the distance between them, forming a crackling beam of energy as the fire and lightning battled for dominance.

Beast Boy silently whistled. "Now _that_ is awe inspiring."

The two Titans heard the footsteps of the pursuing wildebeest hybrids getting closer. Shivering and on the verge of panicking, they hurriedly looked for something to do to escape. Then Wildebeest saw what appeared to be a large hollow underneath the roots of a large tree, and he hurriedly pointed it out to Beast Boy. "Come on," he yelled. "Let's get under this tree and see if we can hide from them that way."

"Good idea."

Beast Boy turned into a viper and slithered into the hollow while Wildebeest briefly jerked some of the roots out of position enough for him to enter before lowering them back into their original positions. Once the two beastly Titans were both inside their new hiding place, there was just enough time for Beast Boy to turn into a chameleon and activate the chameleon form's natural camouflage ability and Wildebeest to move into the shadows within the hollow as far as he could before the 'adult' wildebeest human hybrids that had been chasing them finally came stampeding into view and skidding to a stop at the sight of the battling dinosaurs.

If his chameleon form were capable of whistling, Beast Boy would have silently whistled at the sight of the massive group of hybrids that had apparently been chasing him and Wildebeest. They all looked very similar to Wildebeest himself, only they were taller, reddish brown furred, had tails, had fang-like teeth, and were wearing golden armor instead of silver armor. This same armor also covered their horns, unlike the armor worn by Wildebeest himself.

For a moment, the hybrids gaped and grumbled in confusion and surprise at the two massive beasts ahead of them. The sound and sight of these new arrivals from out of the corner of their eyes was enough to cause the two dinosaurs to end their beam-o-war and briefly look towards the hybrids in curiosity. Then the tyrannosaur noticed first that the sauropod was now in an ideal position for it to strike, and it abruptly pounced upon it, snapping its jaws around the base of its prey's neck. The sauropod shrieked, its eyes widening from the pain of the bite to its neck as the impact against its body caused it to tumble onto its side. From there, the sauropod had just enough time to let out a 2nd despairing wail and lift its head up while desperately trying to charge up another burst of its lightning breath before the tyrannosaur clamped its jaws around its throat and then abruptly yanked its head and neck upward fast enough to cause an ominous 'crack' to split the air.

Wildebeest and Beast Boy briefly jolted in surprise, as did the 'adult' hybrids, at the sudden brutal killing. Then the tyrannosaur opened its jaws, allowing the now lifeless sauropod's head and neck to fall to the ground with a thud, its face still frozen in the shocked and despairing expression that it had before its death. The triumphant carnivore looked to the jungle environment ahead of it and let out a triumphant roar. Once it was done, it looked down at the dead sauropod, licked its chops, and then lowered its head and started eating, taking massive bites out of the dead herbivore's flesh.

Wildebeest gulped and placed his hands over his eyes. "Tell me when it's over." Beast Boy nodded, working to ignore both the fear and disgust in his herbivore forms and bloodlust and glee in his carnivore forms. Two forms in particular were now getting especially antsy at the presence of the tyrannosaur.

"Let me out," growled his t-rex form. "I am the strongest. Let me fight that fin backed rival that dares to otherwise look like me that stands before us. Let me rage!"

"Liar," snarled the spinosaurus form. "_I_ am the strongest, not him. Let _me_ fight that thing! Let me rage! Rage! Rage!"

"Shut up, shut up," Beast Boy mentally hissed at his two bickering dinosaur forms.

The apparent leader of the mutant herd seemed to grow impatient. Grunting irritably, it picked up a nearby rock and threw it at the tyrannosaur's head. The beast in question was still in the midst of eating when the rock hit the side of its head. It paused in its meal, a confused snort coming from its jaws. It turned to look in the direction the rock had come from, a segment of the sauropod's flesh still dangling from its mouth. Then it narrowed its eyes at the relatively big, but still otherwise rather small wildebeest hybrid that appeared in its eyes to have thrown the rock, snorted dismissively, and resumed its eating of the dead sauropod, clearly not at all concerned.

This seemed to irritate the mutant herd's leader, and it threw a second stone at the dinosaur's head. _This_ seemed to irritate the dinosaur considerably more than the previous stone, and it snapped its head to face the guilty mutant before letting out an ear-splitting roar. The mutant leader stumbled back, grunting in apparent shock. The tyrannosaur snorted, its eyes narrowed in an apparent 'serves you right' glare, and then returned to its meal.

"Now that's something I can respect," rumbled the mind of Beast Boy's giganotosaurus form. "A small beast like that furry horned one would be a mere ant to that thing. Especially in comparison to the perfectly good dead longneck it's already eating. Therefore, it for now merely wishes for it to go away so that there will be no need for it to devote any energy against it. I am now just as tempted, despite my superior size, to try to fight it as my small armed and fin backed brethren are."

"Quiet you," Beast Boy mentally hissed.

Unfortunately for the mutant herd, the leader still appeared to have learned nothing from the tyrannosaur's response, and thus chose to ignore the dinosaur's warning roar and offered chance to leave. Specifically, it chose to run right up to the feasting carnivore and punch it in the eye. In a flash, the dinosaur snapped its head to face the hybrid leader, roaring in rage while simultaneously unleashing a giant jet of its fiery breath. The hybrid leader, too close in proximity to have any hope of dodging, didn't even have time to fully notice what was happening before it was engulfed by the flames and sent rocketing backward.

As Beast Boy, Wildebeest, and the rest of the 'adult' mutants gaped in surprise, to stunned to do anything else, the leader landed on its back, grunting and snorting in pain as smoke came billowing off of its scorched fur and armor, the fire that had blasted it fading away into smoke as the breath attack was shut off. The leader started laboriously trying to get back up, grunting still in pain. But then the dinosaur's right foot suddenly slammed down on it, pinning it to the ground and leaving only its head and arms exposed. The hybrid bellowed in agony and terror as it gazed reflexively upward at the beast it had now unwisely provoked into actively attacking. The dinosaur roared, its eyes almost literally blazing with rage, then it suddenly thrusted its head downward, snapped its jaws around the hybrids head and neck, and then just as abruptly turned its head around to cause an ominous crack to split the air. From there, all the onlookers had just a few seconds to gape and jolt in surprise before the tyrannosaur suddenly lifted its foot off of the hybrid leader and then tossed the now lifeless mutant straight at the herd. The dead mutant leader slammed against the ground right in front of the stunned herd.

The now leaderless mutant herd gaped in shock at their savagely killed former leader, some of them reflexively reaching their hands towards it, too stunned to fully comprehend what had just happened, let alone react in a meaningful way. Then they all tensed up, ears poking up in alarm at the sound of their leader's killer roaring in fury at them. They all looked up in unison, only for their eyes to widen, and all of them to bellow in alarm at the sight of the still roaring tyrannosaur looking straight at them while also allowing its fire breath to clearly start charging up as if about to be unleashed upon them. Bellowing and snorting in terror, the mutant herd turned around and started to stampede away in a desperate attempt to escape, a burst of the tyrannosaur's fire breath blasting the ground where they'd been standing mere seconds before they'd started running away. The dinosaur roared, outraged, and started running after the rest of the herd whose leader it had just killed, continuing to send blood red flames spewing from its mouth in the process as it worked to vent its rage as much as it could before returning to its meal.

For several minutes, Beast Boy and Wildebeest remained hidden, scarcely even daring to breath as they waited to be sure that both their original pursuers _and_ the raging dinosaur were gone and not about to return before daring to come out of their hiding spot. Beast Boy also found himself working to desperately keep his now still angrily debating and wishing to get out t-rex, giganotosaurus, and spinosaurus minds from seizing control for the sake of seeking a 'territory duel' against the mysterious sail-backed tyrannosaur, all while he himself still remained in the form of a chameleon. Eventually, the two beastly Titans deemed it safe to come out of hiding, and they both exited from the interior of the hollow, Beast Boy shifting back to human form immediately afterward.

"That was close," said Wildebeest.

"Tell me about it," Beast Boy agreed.

"Indeed."

The two Titans reared up, eyes widened and ears standing up in surprise at this unexpected additional voice. They turned their heads…and promptly blanched at the sight of what appeared to be a humanoid lion slowly stepping out of the darkness between two nearby trees. Wildebeest quickly jumped behind Beast Boy, clearly frightened. "Lions," he whispered fearfully. "They…they eat wildebeests."

Beast Boy, meanwhile, did everything he could to fight off his own panic in favor of examining the new arrival as best as he could. It appeared to be about the same height as Robin, was covered in tawny golden-brown fur, and had a jet-black mane. It had a distinctively lion-like tail, paws for hands and feet, sharp claws, and fang-like teeth. And with the exception of a pair of long tattered blue jeans, it was otherwise unclothed. It nodded its head, its red eyes narrowed in a stoic glare. "Fear not," it stated. "My companion and I have no wish to harm you. And we do not have any desire to eat you either. We're not cannibals."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow in confusion. "Companion?" He asked. Wildebeest, likewise, appeared confused.

"That would be me."

At the sound of this female sounding voice, Beast Boy and Wildebeest looked in the direction of said voice in time to first hear a set of light footsteps come to a stop, and then see what appeared to be a golden furred, black striped, and black leotard clad humanoid tigress seemingly materialize next to the humanoid lion completely out of thin air. Despite themselves, Beast Boy and Wildebeest couldn't help but briefly gaze in awe at the admittedly cool looking way the humanoid tigress had revealed herself to be present.

Said mutant's eyes, almost the exact same shade of yellow as her fur, narrowed in apparent irritation, and she placed her clawed hands upon her hips, her golden blonde hair atop her head to go with her similarly golden fur blowing gently in the light breeze. "Enjoying the view?" She hissed sarcastically.

Beast Boy and Wildebeest promptly looked away, now feeling embarrassed and chastened by what the humanoid tigress had now clearly expressed unhappiness at seeing them gawking at her.

"Sorry," said Beast Boy, Wildebeest grunting wordlessly in agreement.

The humanoid lion placed his right hand upon the humanoid tigress's left shoulder. "It's alright," he stated. "These two aren't like those jerks from home, or that one demented scientist from that lab we escaped. I can tell as much from what I observed of the green one earlier today. And if that one mutant with him is this 'Project Baby Wildebeest' the scientists were talking about, then it's in fact still an elementary school aged child, and thus quite younger than it looks."

The humanoid tigress hung her head, sighing resignedly. "I know," she stated. "It's just, you know how much I hate it when people gawk at me. Especially after that one group of jerks you had to save me from back at home before…"

"I know," the humanoid lion stated reassuringly. "I know."

Beast Boy and Wildebeest looked each other surreptitiously in the eyes. Clearly, there was some sort of history between these two mutants, and the blonde humanoid tigress had evidently undergone some sort of unpleasant experience involving people who'd stared at her in a far less innocent fashion then their own. Then they noticed the two mutants look their way once more, and they returned their gaze to them. Clearly, now was not the time for speculation.

"Try not to mind my friend here," said the lion mutant. "She's had some bad experiences with onlookers staring at her."

"I kinda guessed," said Beast Boy. "But thanks anyway."

"You're most welcome."

"Indeed."

The tigress mutant looked back to Beast Boy and Wildebeest, taking a deep breath in the process to make sure she stayed calm. "You did a good job hiding long enough for that kasai-rex to get goaded into scaring off your earlier pursuers for you…"

"Kasai-rex?!"

Beast Boy pointed in the direction the tyrannosaur had departed to chase the wildebeest mutant herd. "I thought that was a hoax!"

The tigress mutant raised her eyebrow, her yellow eyes narrowed once more.

Beast Boy gulped. "Right, not important right now. Sorry."

"Quite."

The tigress mutant took another deep breath, and then exhaled. "But nevertheless, the kasai-rex will eventually return to finish feasting on this brontopod once it has finished chasing away those Wildebeest Society soldier mutants. And it will likely not be too keen on seeing you within this current vicinity of its meal."

"Indeed," the humanoid lion agreed. "Furthermore, you're both going to want a safe place to hunker down and hide from those soldier mutants if they come looking for you again; especially now that you've so narrowly managed to avoid getting caught by them right at the area where your former hideout was located. Fortunately for you two, my friend and I have just the place for you to use."

Wildebeest narrowed his eyes, clearly suspicious, yet also still slightly frightened of the lion mutant. "How do we know we can trust you?"

The lion mutant let a cheeky grin come on his furry face. "You don't."

"But we will say this though," the tigress mutant promptly broke in, a half irritated, and half loving, look on her face directed towards her leonine partner. "There's just about as much love lost between us and the Wildebeest Society as there is between them and you two."

Wildebeest looked to Beast Boy, who was now thinking carefully to himself. After about a minute, the shapeshifter looked to the two humanoid felines and nodded his head. Evidently, he had accepted their offer. "Alright, we'll take your offer. My friend and I certainly won't be worse off with you than we'd be with the Wildebeest Society if things end up heading south for us because of this."

"Debatable," said the lion mutant. "But understood."

The mutant tigress let a cheeky grin of her own come on her face, and she then extended her right hand towards Beast Boy. "Come with us if you want to live."

**And just like that, another chapter done! Hope you all read and enjoyed, and that you leave plenty of feedback (remember, this new chapter requires an exact minimum of one review in order to allow the next completed chapter to be posted). And for that matter, feel free to ask any questions you may have, and I'll be glad to attempt to answer them. All in all, looking forward to hearing what you have to say, and hoping you'll be looking forward to what happens next!**

**Coming up Next: Beast Boy and Wildebeest find themselves becoming appreciatively further acquainted with their two new beastly allies, both of whom turn out to share an unexpected form of kinship and somewhat less unexpected common enemy with Wildebeest. But at the same time things are starting to go slightly better now for our two beastly Titans, the rest of the Titans find things starting to go rather unfortunately south.**


	10. The Capture

**Hello everyone! Hope you're all ready for yet more Teen Titanic awesomeness despite all the craziness currently going on with the Coronavirus (seriously, that does NOT sound fun, AT ALL!), because here's a new chapter! In this new chapter, Beast Boy and Wildebeest find themselves well on the way to forming a much appreciated camaraderie with their two new beastly allies, both of whom unexpectedly prove to have a mutual connection to Wildebeest, as well as a common enemy. But unfortunately, while things are starting to somewhat look up for the two beastly Titans in this story, things go massively south for Beast Boy's fellow founding Titans. How bad you may ask? Well read on and find out dudes! ^_^**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you again that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. And if J.K. Rowling comes calling, tell her that I do not claim ownership of the creature she helped inspire me to make a few tweaks to for the sake of appearing in this particular chapter either. All that said, onward with the fic everyone! Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 9:**

**The Capture**

"So, your name's Jungle Cat?" Beast Boy asked, his eyebrow raised in confusion as he sat on the ground of the cave where the two feline mutants had led him and Wildebeest. At this point, at least four hours had passed since he and Wildebeest had agreed to tag along with the two humanoid feline mutants. And now that so much time had passed without any further sign of pursuers, Wildebeest Society related or otherwise, they were all starting to relax sufficiently enough to talk and joke around.

"Yes," the lion mutant responded. He nodded his head. "Or at least, that is what I now call myself."

"Huh," Beast Boy stated, thinking to himself. "Odd name."

"Says the one who calls himself Beast Boy," stated the tigress mutant, a cheeky grin on her face.

Wildebeest looked sheepishly at Beast Boy, clearly now finding himself guiltily agreeing with what the tigress mutant had just said. The changeling thought to himself, and then shrugged while nodding his head up and down. "Touché."

"And for what it's worth," said the tigress mutant. She hung her head, a saddened look on her face. "We had less 'odd' names before we came to look…like this." She said this last bit while lifting her right hand and looking at the furry paw complete with sharp claws that it now was while also holding the tip of her tail in her left hand.

"Indeed," the lion mutant agreed. He hung his own head. "But after the experiments we went through several years ago alongside some of our friends after we got caught off the streets by the Wildebeest Society, well, we didn't really feel like we were truly the people we used to be anymore. And so, we took on alternate identities." He looked at Beast Boy and Wildebeest. "I chose to refer to myself as Jungle Cat, as the experimentation done on me to turn me into the form you currently see was entitled Project Jungle Cat."

"And I took on the title of Ambush, likewise, derived from the name of the experiment that made me as I am now."

Beast Boy and Wildebeest looked sadly at the two feline mutants. "When…when were you taken in by the Wildebeest Society?" Wildebeest asked.

Ambush and Jungle Cat looked each other in the eyes, a half pained and half uncertain look on their faces. Then they sighed, shook their heads side to side, and looked back at the two Titans. "Can't fully say for certain," said Jungle Cat. "We haven't really had much access to calendars, and it's been a while since we were first caught so we can't remember exactly what date it happened."

"But we do remember this," Ambush began. "When Jungle Cat and I first arrived at the Wildebeest Society's old base in Manhattan alongside our friends that got caught alongside us, the boss was angry about an escape that had happened just a few days prior to our arrival." She pointed one of her clawed fingers at Wildebeest. "Your escape, to be more precise."

Wildebeest nodded his head, clearly expecting this answer. "That was about 5 years ago." He extended his left hand and placed it comfortingly on Ambush's shoulder. "I may still be little, but even I know it must have been hard for you under the Wildebeest Society's custody. I'm sure if Pantha and I had known that there were other prisoners amongst the Society's experiments just like us, we would have tried to come back to save you and your friends."

"It matters not anymore," Ambush stated. But she directed an appreciative look the younger mutant's way. "But nevertheless, I thank you."

"As do I."

Jungle Cat nodded his head, and then rubbed his right hand's claws through his black mane. "In any event, our capture soon proved only the beginning of our misadventures with the Wildebeest Society. For Ambush and I, plus our five friends who'd been captured alongside us, were subjected to the mutation ray mere days after our arrival at the Wildebeest Society's Manhattan lab. Each of us got mutated with DNA from a different animal. As you can see, I got mutated with lion DNA, and Ambush here got mutated with tiger DNA."

Ambush nodded her head. "Indeed. And within days after our transformations, we all discovered the hard way, completely by accident, that we'd in fact already been metahumans with dormant powers; powers that the mutations helped awaken. By sheer happenstance, the dormant powers our mutations awakened proved oddly appropriate for each specific form the seven of us were mutated into."

"I can definitely understand what you mean as far as your power goes."

The three mutants all looked to Beast Boy, who nodded his head. "I mean, tigers take full advantage of their striped coats for use as camouflage while hunting. It would only make sense for you to have invisibility powers to go with your new tiger-like form."

Jungle Cat thought to himself. "I suppose that's true enough."

"Indeed." Ambush nodded, an approving look on her face. "It appears in some areas you are a lot smarter than our observations had led us to believe."

Beast Boy's eyes briefly narrowed witheringly, but then Wildebeest asked, "What's your additional power Jungle Cat?"

Jungle Cat rolled his eyes. "Take a wild guess."

"Oh," said Wildebeest, a sheepish grin now coming on his face as he let out a nervous chuckle. "You got a supersonic scream."

"Technically a roar, but yes, same basic principle."

Jungle Cat nodded his head. "And with that, plus Ambush's invisibility and the abilities developed by our five friends, we proved unexpectedly difficult to handle for the Wildebeest Society. And they'd already been expecting us to be difficult to handle. But eventually, a mixture of that, and the immediate aftermath of your escape with Project Panthera, or Pantha as you now apparently call her, leading to the police launching an investigation that was getting dangerously close to finding and exposing the Manhattan site caused the Wildebeest Society to uproot themselves and move over to one of their secondary bases here in Lamumba."

"And over the years that followed," Ambush explained, "they tried to train us to be used by them as living weapons that they could use as additional muscle alongside their army of wildebeest mutants. But eventually, we all grew tired of the way they were treating us. And from there, we realized that, with our new powers, we had no reason to fear them. And it certainly helped that they'd chosen to go so far as to sponsor the creation of a video game that quite honestly serves as a mockery of our plight."

Beast Boy's eyebrow rose. "A video game about you guys?" Beast Boy asked. "When did this happen?"

"You might know it as Mutant Madness," Jungle Cat explained.

The changeling's eyes widened. He in fact _did_ know of this game. He'd actually managed to preorder it before the trip to Tokyo, and it was currently amongst the Titans West team's collection of video games. "Oh yeah," he stated. "I do know that game. In fact, I've played it multiple times now." He then directed a sheepish look at the now somewhat irritated looking Jungle Cat and Ambush. "And, heh-heh, I guess now I know who the mutant lion and tiger characters from that game were based on."

"Quite," Jungle Cat growled.

"No kidding," Ambush snarled. She shook her head side to side. "But nevertheless, as you will probably soon guess anyway now that we've told you the necessary information about that game, the company that designed it, Wilderness Entertainment, is in fact one of several fronts used by the Wildebeest Society for the sake of hustling up additional funding. And I shudder to think of how the money you spent to get your copy of that game may have been used once the Wildebeest Society got their hands on it."

She clenched her fists, her face now taking on a very angry look complete with gritted fangs. "And I could go on all day over how comparatively easier the game makes escaping from its equivalent of our former prison look, the various liberties taken with some of the prototype experiments and technology that got used as obstacles, the false additional powers our counterparts were given, or the fact that two of our friends were reduced to being mere downloadable content alongside multiple planned mutants that have still never yet made it past the prototype stage in the Wildebeest Society's plans."

"All that in mind though," Jungle Cat continued, managing to regain composure somewhat in the process while directing a look at Ambush suggesting she try to do the same. "We were understandably both angry and ready to try to finally escape back to freedom. And so, we all attempted to pull off a rebellion and escape some time last year. Unfortunately, despite being taken by surprise, the Wildebeest Society was not caught off guard by our escape attempt so much as to be unable to prevent it."

"I'm guessing my escape must have been enough to convince them to crank up their security and similar escape prevention measures?" Wildebeest asked.

"Apparently so," Ambush agreed. She nodded her head somberly. "And even after we were caught during our failed escape attempt, all 7 of us put up such a fight that the Wildebeest Society decided that it would be necessary to place us under suspended animation until such a time came that they got ahold of technology that could allow them to alter our minds and recondition us to being fully obedient to them, or at the very least any other method that could allow them to have better control over us than they'd had before."

"How'd you guys manage to get out?" Beast Boy asked, clearly curious despite having a feeling they'd soon explain anyway.

"Our friend George, who got subjected to a mutation induced by gorilla DNA, code-named Project Curious George, and had ended up getting both telepathy as well as significantly boosted intelligence had managed to set up a failsafe within the computers and other technology within the lab that would allow his suspended animation chamber to eventually short out and deactivate automatically once said failsafe had absorbed a sufficient amount of energy. Said failsafe finally activated sometime last month, and once George had subsequently woken up from the state of unconsciousness he'd been placed under before being placed under suspended animation, he was able to hack into the computers sufficiently enough to release Jungle Cat and I before the Wildebeest Society became aware of what was happening and sounded the alarm."

"Indeed," Jungle Cat chimed in. He nodded his head somberly. "From there, the three of us were forced to abandon our remaining four friends in favor of escaping. We were able to successfully fight our way out and make it to outside the lab building. We subsequently spent about maybe a week or so surviving in the jungle before George decided it was perhaps safe for him to sneak back to the lab to try to spring out the rest of our friends."

At this point, the two feline mutants hung their heads, saddened looks now on their faces. Beast Boy and Wildebeest silently gulped; and then they looked each other in the eyes. They had a bad feeling just where the story was now going. And sure enough…

"He did not return within the amount of time he'd told us to wait," said Ambush. "And after waiting another 15 minutes more as he'd instructed, we chose to disregard his request for us to just stay at our then campsite and automatically assume one of the two worst case scenarios. Specifically, we snuck our way to a sufficient hiding space nearby the walls of the lab where we'd been held prisoner before our escape. We arrived just in time to catch sight of none other than the entirety of the faculty of that particular facility gathered around the entrance yard in a circle around both the Wildebeest Society's leader as well as, as we'd feared, a recaptured George."

"It took all of our willpower to stay where we were, even as we saw just how badly bruised and beaten up he'd been by the two wildebeest mutants that were holding onto his arms at the time," said Jungle Cat. "And it only got worse from there. For as we watched from the hiding place we'd taken, we were able to overhear George and the leader talking. George made it very clear to the leader that, no matter what ended up being attempted, he would _never_ be under his control, and that he'd sooner die then allow so much as a _second's_ worth of time from the leader or anyone else in the Wildebeest Society attempting as much."

At this point, the two beastly Titans noticed a slight tear form in the lion mutant's eyes, which said mutant was quick to wipe away with the back of his hand. "As you can probably guess," he eventually managed to whimper. "That proved to be a very horridly prophetic choice of words for him to make. For immediately after George said all this, the leader responded, and I quote, 'Very well, I'll grant your wish'. And from there, I had only enough time to grab onto Ambush and cover her mouth to prevent her from trying to intervene or accidentally giving us away before the leader drew out a pistol and shot George dead. And when _that_ happened, it took all my willpower not to do the very thing I was already busy trying to prevent Ambush from doing."

"It was a terrible experience, watching George die," Ambush stated, sniffling and letting a tear trickle out of her right eye as she remembered the event in question. "As Jungle Cat said, it took all our willpower not to go bursting out of hiding right then and there. And if Jungle Cat hadn't been holding me and keeping me quiet, I might very still have managed to do exactly that or likewise given us away despite my own attempts at preventing myself from doing so. And we still had to keep fighting to stay hidden as the leader turned away from George's carcass and dismissively told his underlings to throw 'the garbage' into the incinerator." In that instant, Ambush briefly clenched her eyes shut and whimpered as some more tears came out of her eyes at the memory of this event, particularly how her dead friend had so coldly been referred to and treated as trash.

"Indeed," Jungle Cat stated. He sniffled as well and wiped some small tears from his own eyes before he cleared his throat and continued. "It wasn't until after the leader had told his underlings to continue search efforts against Ambush and I and left alongside his two mutant guards, and the rest of the underlings had all gone back inside the lab building that we left to return to our campground we'd had at the time. For as much as we wanted to avenge George right then and there, any attempt at that particular moment in time would have only ended with the two of us getting recaptured."

"Indeed," Ambush agreed bitterly. "And of course, since George was the one with all the necessary knowledge needed on the technology and who had memorized the necessary paths to take within the building, we would have no chance of getting our remaining four friends out without his assistance." She hung her head, now shaking and quivering as she struggled to avoid bursting out crying. "And so…for the entire remainder of last month…plus the last few days…we've been forced to survive out here…on our own…while leaving…our friends…to…rot…asleep…in suspended…animation…"

No sooner had she said these last few words when she completely broke down. She laid her face down upon her hands and started weeping and sobbing uncontrollably. Jungle Cat gently placed a hand on her shoulder, and she briefly jolted and jerked her head upward in surprise at the contact. Then she looked her friend's way. The lion mutant nodded. "It's alright Ambush. I know exactly how you feel."

This caused Ambush to sniffle, and she managed to lean her head against Jungle Cat's chest and wrap her arms around him before she burst into tears once more. Jungle Cat returned her embrace in the process, quick to start whispering reassurance in her ear and likewise trying his best to comfort her as she cried. Beast Boy and Wildebeest could only helplessly watch. For due to how little involvement they'd had with the reason behind the tigress mutant's current sadness, they knew that any attempt of their own at helping Jungle Cat cheer up Ambush wouldn't sound nearly genuine enough.

Eventually, Ambush finally managed to slowly calm down and finish getting her sadness out of her system, at which point she and Jungle Cat broke their embrace and turned around to face their guests once more. "Sorry about that," the tigress mutant managed to say.

"It's alright," said Wildebeest. He nodded his head. "I'm sure if I were undergoing something like what you and your friend here have had to go through, I'd have a need to vent out some tears myself."

"Same here dudes."

Beast Boy nodded his head with a somber look on his face. But then his eyes suddenly widened as he seemed to abruptly get an idea. "And you know what? I know just the way Wildebeest and I can repay you for your help today."

The two humanoid felines looked to Beast Boy, confused looks on their faces.

"What do you mean?" Jungle Cat asked.

Beast Boy chuckled. "Well first, let me ask you this; about how long have you been observing me and Wildebeest?"

"We first started doing so last night," said Ambush. "While you were in your old hideout with those other friends of yours."

"We know that you're up against a Professor Chang," said Jungle Cat. "And that you've apparently been infected with some prime virus or something that's making your shape shifting start to develop a mind of its own."

"Well that's certainly one way to put it," Beast Boy admitted. "And not at all something I ever expected to hear stated aloud. But anyway, yes, my other teammates are currently going after Chang and hoping to find a possibly real antidote for what I've currently got in my system. And as you also probably know from your observations, the lab where Chang is doing his business at the very least has ties to the Wildebeest Society." He looked over to Ambush and Jungle Cat once more. "Quick question, do you know if the lab where you and your friends were held was the only Wildebeest Society lab here in Upper Lamumba?"

"It was not," Jungle Cat said immediately.

Ambush shook her head side to side in agreement. "We heard the leader say something about returning to the 'main lab' when he departed from his visit in which he killed George," she added.

"Then that means there are at least two labs here," Beast Boy reasoned. "Which means that this 'main lab' you just brought up is the one my friends are currently heading to while the lab you were at, and therefore the 'sister location' mentioned by Wildebeest's creator during the conversation we overheard before getting those mutant soldiers sent our way, is a completely separate lab."

"Yeah, so?" Ambush asked, clearly confused, yet also curious.

"Simple," Beast Boy stated, a confident look now on his face. "My friends and I? We'll help you guys rescue your friends."

"And how might you do that?" Jungle Cat asked, a slight skepticism in his tone as he raised his eyebrow. Ambush also directed a half hopeful and half wary glare the shape shifter's way. Wildebeest also looked at Beast Boy, clearly curious as to just how Beast Boy intended to follow through with what he was currently offering.

"A fair question," said Beast Boy. He drew out his communicator. "As established, my four direct teammates are currently on their way to what is presumably this 'primary lab' that the Wildebeest Society head honcho was referring to. And since I was asked to maintain contact with them, it certainly won't be any trouble to send a message to them to ask if they can add doing some research on that sister location to their to-do list."

"If this virus you're currently infected with is as serious as you say it is," Ambush stated, "I highly doubt your friends will put very high priority on fitting in a side errand like that."

"Indeed," Jungle Cat agreed. "And even if they did, why would they? They barely even know us. _You_ barely even know us."

"Precisely why I've thought up a backup option for if my message doesn't go through."

Beast Boy rammed his right fist against his left palm. "Specifically, I'm thinking we could go ahead and perform some recon to scope out the sister location's position. That way, Wildebeest and I will at least know exactly where to find it and be able to help lead the rest of our friends there once their business at the primary lab is over. Once Chang's taken care of and I'm potentially cured, we all can either personally help you bust out your friends still frozen at the sister location, or at least arrange things so that you two will have an easier time busting them out yourselves without us directly assisting."

Jungle Cat still looked unconvinced. Ambush, however, seemed to be honestly willing to consider what Beast Boy was suggesting. Beast Boy noticed, and quickly continued. "And it wouldn't be entirely all that hard to do either. I mean come on; you both probably still have at least a general idea of where the lab you were kept in is located. It should be easy enough for you to guide me and Wildebeest there so that we can help lead the rest of our teammates in the event they're unable to get that same information from the primary lab."

Jungle Cat tensed up and lifted his left hand as if about to interrupt, but Wildebeest was quick to join in and back Beast Boy up before the lion mutant could do so. "And we wouldn't have to worry about being overwhelmed. With our four friends present with us, that would make 8 people going up against the guys at the sister location. I mean, numbers like that would certainly leave much higher chances of you successfully fighting your way through the lab long enough to figure out the right path to where your friends are being held then if only the two of you were trying to do so."

Jungle Cat thought to himself, Ambush directing a half hopeful and half anxious look his way. "Well…I suppose that's true," the lion mutant admitted. "But even so…"

"And hacking wouldn't be a problem either," Beast Boy stated, already getting an idea of just what was perhaps now on Jungle Cat's mind. "That one friend I mentioned? Cyborg? I can guarantee you that he's hacked far more complicated devices and computer systems then whatever he'd need to hack into at the sister location in order to get your friends free."

Jungle Cat hung his head, still clearly uncertain what to say. But it was at this point that Ambush decided to join in. She placed her hand on Jungle Cat's shoulder. "I know you fear going back there and failing," she then said. "Believe me, the idea of either being forced to flee again without them or ending up recaptured is something that scares me just as much as it does you." She gestured towards Beast Boy. "But if this shape shifter and his friends are truly as skilled and powerful as he says, then we could very well indeed finally have a chance of getting the rest of our friends free if we take him up on this offer."

Jungle Cat sighed. "I suppose that's true…it's just…" He hung his head. Then he looked at Beast Boy. He sighed. "Alright, fine. Here's what we'll do." He pointed one of his clawed fingers at the shape shifter. "For now, Ambush and I will at least lead you to the sister location, let you know where it is. While we're still outside, we'll go through everything you'll need to know about what to expect from that place. And if you still feel like you can handle going through with what you're offering after all that, _then_ I'll give the ok for you and your friends to help us bust the rest of our friends out once they've finished their shenanigans at the primary lab and hopefully gotten you cured. Deal?"

"Consider it done dude," said Beast Boy as he impulsively grabbed Jungle Cat's hand that was pointing at him and shook it. "You won't be disappointed. I can promise you that."

"Well you're certainly confident," said Ambush.

Wildebeest chuckled. "You have no idea."

Beast Boy directed a side glare towards the young mutant. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Whatever it means, it's all fine and dandy," said Jungle Cat. He drew his hand back once Beast Boy had finished shaking it briefly glaring at it as if Beast Boy's grip had been uncomfortably tight. He looked back at Beast Boy. "But one thing I can tell you for sure right now is that we're not going there yet."

"He's right."

The two Titans looked at Ambush, who nodded her head. She brushed her clawed right fingers through her blonde hair. "The amount of time it took for us to get here from where we found you? That's about the same amount of time it will take to travel from here to the sister location if our memory serves us correctly and we don't get lost on the way."

"And that's a problem why?" Beast Boy asked.

"Um Beast Boy," said Wildebeest. "You might want to check the time."

Beast Boy looked to Wildebeest, thought to himself, and then drew out his communicator. His eyes widened as he opened it and caught sight of the time. "Oh," he said. "I see."

Jungle Cat nodded his head. "Exactly. Right now? The sun will set soon. And I don't know about you, but Ambush and I? We are most definitely not going wandering around this jungle in the dark. Even with our instincts, there's no guarantee that we wouldn't end up getting lost. And that's being optimistic considering how many things there are living in this jungle that could be out and about at night willing to try to eat us."

. . . . .

Professor Chang stood expectantly as he watched his mysterious benefactor observe what was unfolding on the computer screen. Said benefactor seemed to be in a very good mood as he did so. "Perfect," he heard the benefactor whisper under his breath. "So far, everything is going as planned."

"I take it, that additional technology you had me implant in that one Primetia sample is working as intended?"

"Indeed it is."

The benefactor nodded. "So long as nothing goes wrong, I should finally have all the data I need within the next few hours." He clenched his hands together, intertwining his fingers in the process. "And once I have what I need, all I'll need to do is upload this information to that other machine I had you design for me so that I can then use it on the target once it has come within my reach."

He seemed to think to himself. Then he turned his head to directly face the scientist. "And now that I think about it, I presume the tracking system is up and running?"

"Correct sir."

Chang nodded his head. He had to admit, for all his intellect and scientific prowess, he had to admit that he felt rather proud of what he'd managed to accomplish in setting up the 'tracking system' he was currently using for his current benefactor's behalf. On the day of his escape from the Brotherhood of Evil's headquarters following his defrosting, he'd managed to get ahold of the T-Comm device that Robin had unwittingly given to Madame Rouge and taken it with him. And as it had since turned out, this had proven a surprisingly wise choice of action. For upon learning of how the Brotherhood had managed to hack into the device and use it as a means of tracking the entirety of the Teen Titans team, the benefactor had immediately suggested for him to try to get the device repaired and set up a smaller scale version of the same makeshift tracking system. It had admittedly taken a great deal of trial and error, but he'd eventually managed to get it done. And now, with the satellite interference tower taken down, he now had a good read on all 5 of the founding Titans.

"Excellent."

The benefactor turned his chair so that his entire body was facing Chang. "About when should we expect him to arrive?"

Chang was briefly caught off guard. "The…the currently infected target you mean?"

The benefactor narrowed his eyes. "Yes. Of course I'm talking about that one. Who else would I be talking about?"

Chang winced, mentally face palming in the process. "Right, of course, my apologies." He cleared his throat, and then opened his mouth to speak…only to then pause as he belatedly remembered a somewhat unpleasant detail he'd learned from his recent session at the tracking system.

After about a minute of this awkward silence, the benefactor shook his head side to side. "Professor," he stated coolly, but with a hint of barely restrained rage, as he glared at the scientist. "Whatever this new problem on your mind is, I'd strongly recommend you tell me what it is…right now."

Professor Chang was once again caught off guard. "Problem? Who said there was a problem?"

At the sight of the benefactor's eyes narrowing once more, Chang mentally face palmed.

"Do you think me a fool?"

The benefactor slowly drew out his pistol while Chang silently struggled to determine an appropriate response, ominously stroking it in his hands just to rub in the sense of threat. His face remained calm and emotionless as he saw the scientist mentally squirming before him. "Need I remind you how generous I'm being in serving as your benefactor? I could easily have left you and your men to your own devices and found someone else to help me fulfill my current plans in your place. And not only that, but even in agreeing to help you, I could have merely offered only to allow you to stay alive and to have a temporary reprieve from the law in exchange for your services. But no, not only did I indeed allow you sanctuary in exchange for your assistance, but I also offered a little extra to go along with keeping you safe and hidden from the law as your benefactor."

He pointed his finger at Chang. "Furthermore, need I also remind you that, for all the progress that has been made, it has not been done without problems? For starters, I'm sure you are well aware of how irksome it has been to constantly have to deal with the annoyance brought about by all those minor guerrilla raids we've suffered from at the hands of that pesky local tribe ever since we first set up shop in this lab. Furthermore, my old colleagues from the Wildebeest Society were already getting impatient enough with how much time we've spent using their lab as temporary lodging even when the only thing securing their good will was the favor they owed me from my earlier criminal days as well as my wallet. And with how much trouble they've been having attempting to recapture that old escaped project of theirs, they're hardly going to be any more receptive to our use of their resources in exchange for what comparatively little we've been giving to them in return. And if you think for even a minute that they'll be in the mood to acknowledge how much of that difficulty is partially their own fault, you are very much mistaken."

Chang couldn't help but surreptitiously nod his head upon hearing this. He knew all to well what the benefactor meant. As it so happened, the fact that Wildebeest had even been present in Upper Lamumba at all had completely escaped the attention of the lab's occupants until the previous day. And as a result, due to just how impatient the Wildebeest Society members had been to attempt to finally regain custody of their lost experiment, Chang had been forced to make do with an alternate rudimentary tracking strategy as a result of how much time it would have taken for him to successfully further hack into the Titans' communication network sufficiently enough to add Wildebeest's communicator to his already established tracking network. And the fact that their effort had hunting Wildebeest that day had ended in failure had not left them in a good enough mood to accept the idea of themselves having any blame for the matter.

The benefactor continued his speech, Chang hurriedly returning his attention to what was being spoken. "That in mind, it would be most unfortunate if I were to end up with _another_ nuisance to weather through. _Especially_ if said nuisance were to originate from a problem that I could have easily done away with if I'd been aware of it sooner. And that's without mentioning all the progress we've managed to make, how much is riding on everything going smoothly, _and_ the fact that we damn near lost all our progress _and_ our lives just a few weeks ago thanks to that idiot henchman of yours that I had to shoot dead as punishment." He pointed his pistol at Chang, coolly cocking it so that it was ready to fire. "That being said, I ask for the 2nd time now for you to tell me what this apparent new problem is. And if you're smart, I will _not_ have to do so a 3rd time."

Chang gulped, and then nodded his head. "It is the green one," he explained, knowing that his benefactor would understand perfectly what he meant. "He is not amongst the group currently heading our way. In fact, he appears to have already traveled several miles or so in the complete opposite direction from where this lab is located."

The benefactor allowed a very ominous silence to pass between him and Chang after the scientist had spoken. Eventually, right as the scientist was starting to fear that perhaps he'd end up getting shot for bearing this very glaring bad news for his benefactor's plans, said benefactor finally deemed it necessary to speak once more. "Hmm," he thought to himself. "That is indeed quite problematic." He thought to himself for about a minute, only for a smug smirk to then come on his face, his icy blue eyes agleam. "But not so much that it will be impossible for us to resolve."

Chang was just about to ask the younger man what he meant when the benefactor turned his grinning gaze back to him. "The group you say _is_ heading our way; I presume that it consists of my target's 4 Titan friends?"

"That would be correct sir."

"Well in that case, we have a perfect means of solving this new little problem heading our way right this very moment."

He leaned back, slipping his gun back into its holster and intertwining his fingers together while his smile remained on his face. "Tell me, about when do you think we should expect our upcoming guests to arrive?"

"Assuming they're smart enough to set up a safe camp for the night, probably tomorrow morning at the earliest."

"Well in that case," the benefactor stated as he turned his chair back around, his hand already reaching for the button that would activate the intercom feature. "Let's go ahead and arrange a little welcoming party for them."

. . . . .

"You sure it's a good idea to go on radio silence mode?"

"I have to agree with Raven man, what if BB and Wildebeest try to contact us?"

Robin sighed. At that particular moment, he and the other founding Titans accompanying him were now at least a mile or so away from the lab according to Cyborg's scanners. And since they'd had to pause their trip the previous night for the sake of sleep and taking safe shelter, they were now very eager to reach the lab now that they were getting so close to arrival. "That's a risk we're going to have to take. With how close we're getting to the lab, we need to minimize our potential chances of getting caught as much as possible."

"Couldn't we just put our communicators on the mode of quiet?"

"Under any other circumstances, I'd say yes. But right now, from what I saw in Beast Boy's message from last night, I have reason to believe that Chang might somehow be tracking us. And if he is in fact tracking us somehow, then the best thing we can do is to put our communication devices on airplane mode. That way, we'll be harder to track if he's using our communicators to trace us in a way that won't require us to turn them off altogether."

"I still don't like this," said Cyborg. "But you're the boss."

"Let's just keep going," said Robin. "We should be there soon."

Unfortunately, what neither of the 4 Titans realized just yet was how very horribly right Robin would soon turn out to be. For soon after they had this conversation, they stepped into a clearing…only to then silently jerk to a halt at the sight of the imposing looking animal present within.

Standing right in the center of the clearing, grazing peacefully, was a rhinoceros-like beast that appeared to be the size of an elephant. The size was not the only unusual element to its appearance either, for it also had a pair of short elephant-like ears, a long leathery skinned tail similar to the scaly ones on most dinosaurs, and a long curved nose horn that was truly massive by even rhino standards. It was currently positioned horizontally in front of the four Titans but was so busy grazing that it did not yet appear aware of their arrival.

For a few seconds, the Titans stood where they were, gaping at the awe-inspiring, yet also rather intimidating looking, animal before them. Then Raven slowly turned her head to face her friends. "Don't make any sudden noise," she whispered to them.

"You know what this is?" Cyborg whispered back.

"Yes. I'll explain more about it when we're safe. But for now, just move slowly and carefully. Its eyesight is about as good as an ordinary rhino's, but it's also got the same sense of smell as an ordinary rhino, and its sense of hearing is also very strong."

"So, what do we do?" Robin asked.

"Like I said, we'll just carefully move out of this clearing. Once we've gotten back to a safe distance, we can see if we can safely get around it before resuming our trip to the lap."

"Sounds like a plan to me ya'll."

"Alright. Let's get going then."

"Agreed."

The four Titans slowly began to back away from the grazing animal, working as carefully as they could to avoid alerting it to their presence. A few minutes massed, and the Titans seemed on the verge of making it out of the current situation without any trouble…until a slight breeze briefly flowed towards the creature from just behind Starfire.

The beast stiffened, an alerted grunt popping from its mouth as it halted its grazing. The Titans immediately halted their movement, tensely working to stay still as the alerted creature likewise stayed still, seemingly trying to see if it could either get a stronger whiff of the mysterious scent or perhaps hear a noise that might provide further evidence. The Titans stayed still, scarcely daring to breath as they waited for the beast to hopefully calm down and resume its grazing. But then Cyborg, in an attempt at silently moving his foot to a just slightly more comfortable position, ended up accidentally stepping on a twig…which promptly snapped in two.

All four of the Titans instantly tensed up, as did the creature. The beast's head rose, another alerted grunt splitting the air as its ears stood on end. Then it abruptly turned its head in time to look straight towards the Titans. At the sight of the creature's eyes seeming to widen, Cyborg had just enough time to wince. "Oh snap." The beast bellowed, rearing up threateningly on its hind legs before slamming itself back down on all fours, eyes narrowed as it pawed the ground like a bull and swung its powerful tail side to side.

"Get ready team," Robin snarled. "It's about to charge."

"HHHHRRRRUUUUMMMMM!"

With that furious bellow, the outraged beast barreled straight towards the four teenage heroes, its impossibly large horn pointing straight towards them like a lance as it rushed towards them.

Robin was quick to react. "TITANS MOVE!"

They all leaped aside just in time for the charging animal to come rocketing straight through the empty space they'd been occupying mere seconds prior. Caught off guard, the creature scrambled desperately to skid itself to a halt, only to crash headfirst into a nearby tree. The tree, a particularly strong, large, and tough specimen, proved sturdy enough for the beast's horn to impale it to the point of getting stuck entirely, leaving its unwitting prisoner even angrier as it began to furiously jerk and pull to get itself unstuck.

The Titans regrouped in time to briefly gaze at their now quite stuck would-be assailant. Robin couldn't help but let a smug smirk briefly come on his face at the creature's expense. "The old bullfighting maneuver," he quipped. "Works every time." Cyborg chuckled, and Starfire directed a look of confusion at her boyfriend. Raven, however, was the only one amongst the four who noticed a particularly unsettling detail. And the detail in question was reason enough for her to not want herself, or her friends, to stick around too much longer.

"Don't hold your breath on it."

The other Titans looked at her in time for her to turn away and start levitating back in the direction they'd been heading to reach the lab. "Let's move," she yelled. "The more distance we put between us and that thing within the next few minutes, the better."

"But why…?" Starfire began.

"Just trust me," Raven snapped. "That thing won't stay stuck for long."

"What do you…?" Robin began.

But Cyborg had now managed to notice the reason behind Raven's concern. "Yo! Ok! Let's move! Move! Move! MOVE!" He reflexively grabbed Robin and Starfire by the shoulders and yanked them into moving alongside him as he rushed past them to catch up with Raven. At this point, the Boy Wonder and his Tamaranean girlfriend felt it best to just do as their friends were doing, the latter grabbing Robin's hands and carrying him off the ground for good measure.

About a minute later, Robin and Starfire were just about to try to ask Raven and Cyborg why they'd been in such a hurry to get moving before they all heard a thunderous noise behind similar to that of a geyser going off. All of two seconds passed the moment in which that noise had gone off before they then heard the furious bellowing of the very beast that they'd left trapped behind them, followed by the thunderous earthshaking footsteps it made as it started to chase after them once more.

"Keep moving! Keep moving! Keep moving!" Cyborg yelled as he and the other three Titans continued moving as fast as they could to stay ahead of the now very pissed off mysterious animal pursuing them. Said animal soon turned out to quite nightmarishly be even faster then it's prior charge at them had already led them to believe when they heard the sound of its footsteps become unnervingly loud in a disturbingly short time. And even worse, it wasn't long before the rapidly decreasing proximity of the beast to the Titans caused Cyborg to find himself on immensely precarious footing due to the strength of the shockwaves from its footsteps.

At the sight of this, Robin quickly looked back, his eyes widening at the sight of the beast being practically seconds away from reaching Cyborg, and then looked up to Starfire. "STAR!" He yelled. "Dive down so we can get Cyborg!"

Starfire swiftly dove down without argument, her boyfriend swiftly repositioning himself so that she'd have her left hand free to grab Cyborg. And Cyborg was thankfully able to notice in time to grab hold of the Tamaranean's outstretched hand and be promptly yanked high off the ground. This proved especially fortuitous for him seconds later when the angry creature's mighty horn swung, point-first, straight through the empty space where Cyborg had been positioned. The beast bellowed in rage, swinging its head side to side and causing its horn to viciously slam against the trees on either side of it, violently uprooting them and sending them all flying backwards through the air as it continued to furiously chase after the four teenage heroes.

Raven eventually noticed it starting to come close to overtaking them once more, and she hurriedly teleported behind her friends and summoned a shadowy barrier between her and the beast. Said beast's head pounded into the makeshift shield literally seconds after it had taken shape, causing Raven to be sent flying backward from the impact, the shield bursting into shadowy mist immediately upon impact thanks to her concentration being broken. The creature, thankfully, also ended up collapsing onto its side from the impact. But it didn't take long for the beast to recover sufficiently enough to start furiously thrashing itself around in its efforts to get back on its feet and resume the chase. It took the exact same amount of time for it to recover and resume the chase as it took for Raven herself to recover and keep up with her friends.

At the sound of the beast's furious bellows as it once again started getting close to behind them, Cyborg found himself feeling particularly annoyed at how, despite all four of them being high out of its reach, it was _still_ chasing after them. He prepared his sonic cannon, pointing it straight down towards the charging monstrosity. "Yo! Leave us alone already!" He fired. The blue sonic laser blast struck the tip of the beast's horn, seemingly being deflected aside as the beast swung its head in the direction the beam had been sent flying. A 2nd blast from Cyborg's cannon was similarly deflected, as was a 3rd, the beast seeming to get progressively angrier with each blast it deflected. Robin, confused and irritated, added in as much of his explosive disks as he dared try to add in from his current position. Unfortunately, just like Cyborg's sonic laser blasts, the bursts of fire and voltage unleashed by the disks seemed to only annoy the beast and make it even angrier than it had already been.

"Yo!" Cyborg yelled. "How thick _is_ that thing's skin?!"

Starfire, however, noticed a completely different detail that caused her green eyes to widen. "Friends!" She yelled. "Look at its neck!"

Raven and the boys reflexively did as Starfire asked, and their eyes promptly widened at the sight of an indeed less than pleasant detail…a collar around its neck very similar to the ones that had been around the necks of the 7 juvenile nundus they'd faced before.

"Great, just great," Robin thought to himself. "No wonder its still chasing us. It's another one of Chang's freak security animals."

"I see the lab!"

Starfire and the boys immediately looked in the direction Raven was pointing after she'd shouted this news. Sure enough, they could now see a large building that appeared far too heavily fortified to be anything other than the very lab they'd been traveling to. And curiously enough, it also appeared to be in the center of a cliff encased valley surrounded by the trees that made up the jungle.

"Well what do you know," said Cyborg. "We were even closer than I thought!"

Robin pointed his finger at the lab base, eyes narrowed and determined. "Alright team," he growled. "Land outside the gate!"

Starfire looked nervously at the still furious creature following them. "Robin," she stated, "are you the aware of how this creature chasing us could very well follow us there?"

"That's a risk we're just going to have to take," her boyfriend responded.

"She has a point Robin," Raven stated. "That thing is under that same control that those juvenile nundus were under. What if Chang _wants_ us to come? This could be a trap."

"Again, we're just going to have to take that risk," Robin growled. "Trap or no trap, we won't get any closer to acquiring an antidote for Beast Boy if we spend the next few hours flying around aimlessly to shake off that freak rhino thing or plot out an intricate way to sneak around the occupants of that lab. And if it is a trap, then so what? We're already prepared to fight if needed. Now again, LAND OUTSIDE THE GATE!"

This time, neither of his teammates chose to argue, and the Titans swooped down towards the area just outside the gate, which curiously appeared to be two metallic posts attached to opposites ends of a gap in one of the four concrete walls surrounding the complex where the lab building was located. Robin and Cyborg let go of Starfire's hands once they were at a safe enough distance from the ground and landed perfectly on their feet. "Let's go!" Robin yelled as he and Cyborg started running towards the gate. "There's no time to lose!"

And indeed, there wasn't, for the Titans could even now still hear the thunderous footsteps and apoplectic bellowing of the as of yet unidentified creature pursuing them. And it seemed to be already getting once again very close to overtaking them. In fact, the four Titans were only a couple feet away from the gate to the lab complex when the creature burst out of the shadows within the jungle and started charging rapidly towards the narrow space that served as a natural entrance to the valley. "Hurry," the Boy Wonder shrieked as he and the other Titans continued to rush towards the open gate, the beast already seconds away from letting its horn pass through the valley entrance. And by the time the Titans were practically seconds away from reaching the gate, the beast chasing them had already made it halfway across the distance between the valley entrance and the gate. Desperate to try to escape, Robin and Cyborg lunged through the gate, Starfire and Raven swooping in after them, and the beast minutes away from barreling right through the gate itself just as Robin and Cyborg were about to land…only to suddenly be sent staggering backward, bellowing in agony from being suddenly encased in a violently crackling web of voltage, after slamming, head-first, into a translucent blue energy barrier that suddenly materialized out of nowhere within the up to that point empty gate. The Titans managed to turn their heads and gape in half surprise and half relief as the vicious beast that had been chasing them briefly stumbled backward, still engulfed in electricity, before coming to a stop and landing on its backside, moaning weakly and in pain as the voltage slowly wore off and smoke started to rise from its charred skin.

For a brief moment, Robin let a smug smirk come on his face, and he took on a seemingly challenging pose, pointing his finger at the beast as if to taunt it. "Yeah that's right!" Robin yelled, clearly now feeling quite cocky. "No pets allowed!"

His three friends, however, were not in such high spirits.

"Rob," Cyborg droned. "Hate to ruin your moment, but that seems a little awfully convenient."

"So?" Robin spat, directing an almost arrogant looking smirk Cyborg's way.

"He's right Robin," said Raven. "That force field could have easily gone off when _we_ tried to enter, or just never activated at all."

"Yeah well neither of those possibilities happened," Robin growled. "But for what its worth, we'd best get moving…"

The sound of a sudden heavy metallic slamming interrupted Robin, and drew the attention of the four Titans to the gate, at which point their eyes widened at the sight of two heavy iron doors that had suddenly slid out into view between them and the energy barrier. Then they heard the sound of the doors locking into place, at which point they had just enough time to notice what appeared to be a ring of mysterious blood red sigils painted on the exact middle of the doors and walls before said sigils suddenly started glowing with bright red light, briefly blinding them.

They were all still working to regain their bearings after this when they then heard what sounded like a massive number of guns extending into position and getting cocked up into being ready to fire, as well as mass buzzing of voltage. When the Titans finally opened their eyes, they all gulped upon finding themselves smack in the thick of a massive web of red laser lights pointing straight at them, all coming from either one of a vast multitude of gigantic turret guns that had extended into view from atop the walls surrounding the lab complex or from one of the equally intimidating myriad rifle-like devices in the hands of a massive number of people instantly recognizable as being amongst Professor Chang's own underlings who had now come into view. Then they also noticed the gigantic tuning fork-like devices positioned in between the turret gun devices that were buzzing and crackling with active electricity, and how said tuning forks were positioned so that the voltage encased ends were pointing at the Titans as well alongside all the guns. Then they heard the sound of what appeared to be bows being prepared for shooting arrows, and they all noticed a group of figures dressed in hooded reddish brown cloaks with golden brooches designed to resemble stylized wildebeest heads holding them together pointing loaded crossbow like devices their way.

At this point, Starfire gulped, clearly quite nervous about all the potentially quite deadly weapons pointing at her and her friends. "Friends," she whimpered. "I do not like the way that this is looking."

"Join the club," Cyborg grumbled, clearly not feeling any more confident about their odds than the Tamaranean warrior princess was feeling.

At the unexpected sound of apparent bovine grunting and snorting, Raven turned her gaze away from all the weapons to look ahead of her once more. Her eyes briefly widened, and then she sighed. "And it just got worse."

Her friends looked in front of them in time to blanch at the sight of a massive group of beings that looked almost exactly like Wildebeest. Only these creatures were covered in reddish brown fur, were wearing golden armor instead of silver armor, had red eyes, fangs, and tails, and were also a good head taller than their familiar elementary school-aged teammate. As they watched, the hybrids snarled, their red eyes agleam and viciously sharp teeth gleaming in the harsh light of the red tracking point lasers and blue voltage, and their fists violently ramming together as they stomped their hoofed feet.

It was at this point that Robin gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and mentally facepalmed in embarrassment and rage. Only now did he belatedly realize that he'd now managed, like a complete idiot, to recklessly lead himself and his friends into a trap…and a clearly very well planned out and effective one at that. He directed a sidelong glance at Raven. "Raven," he whispered. "If at all possible, now would be a good time to try to use your powers to get us out of here."

"No can do," said Raven. The sorceress pointed at the ring of glowing sigils painted on the walls around the lab complex. "I just tried a minute ago. Those sigils? They've clearly been explicitly designed to block off my powers. Face it Robin, we're stuck."

The Boy Wonder growled, fighting with all his willpower not to grab his hair and try to tear it out by the roots, fearing that such an action might unwittingly serve as a signal for the hybrids to attack and the various long-range weapons pointing at them to open fire. "Good gravy," he mentally snarled. "How could I have been so stupid!?"

"Welcome to my current home base!"

At the sound of this newly added, but unfortunately quite familiar, wizened voice, the four Titans turned their glowering gaze towards the large main lab building in time to see none other than Professor Chang himself standing outside the now closing sliding glass doors to the building alongside an imposing figure dressed in a bone white cloak with a grayish purple colored version of the same broach on the cloaks of the crossbow wielders. The professor seemed to have a quite giddy and cheerful look on his face, complete with a wide smile that showed off all his teeth as he held his hands and arms up in an apparent 'behold' gesture.

"I will admit," he chuckled, "it truly is a pleasure to see you all again." He paused, briefly thinking to himself. "Well…ok…_almost_ all of you again."

Cyborg and Raven narrowed their eyes, the latter audibly growling at the cavalier mentioning of Beast Boy's conspicuous absence. Starfire appeared likewise angry, her eyes now glowing solid green. Robin, however, merely sighed and shook his head side to side in defeat, too embarrassed at his own situational stupidity to feel angry.

Professor Chang chuckled once more, and clasped his hands together, fingers intertwining as he grinned. "But no matter, you four at least are here. And that in mind, I, my men, the honorable ladies and gentlemen of the Wildebeest Society, and my generous benefactor who allowed all this to be possible, shall now be privileged to have you as our guests!"

Cyborg raised his eyebrow, directed a glare at the various hostile forces surrounding him and his friends, and then looked blankly at Chang. "How can we refuse?" He sarcastically asked.

**Dun, dun, DUN! How will things unfold from here?! To find out, read, enjoy, and review (after all, an exact MINIMUM of ONE review for this chapter is required before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted! Again, hope you all enjoyed and leave plenty of feedback! And do try to stay safe from the Coronavirus everyone!**

**Coming up Next: The two beastly Titans and their two equally beastly new allies set off on their planned recon of the 'sister location'. And in the process, they manage to unexpectedly encounter an element of one of the more pleasant aspects of Beast Boy's past history in Upper Lamumba. What might said pleasant aspect be? Find out next time!**


	11. An Unexpected Reunion

**Hey ya'll! So sorry I kept you all waiting. A mixture of corona-virus craziness, standard home chores, and other activities (plus unexpected procrastination) led to me taking a lot longer than I planned. Hope you all still had a relatively happy Easter, that you are staying safe, and that we all make it out of this mess in one piece. That in mind, here's the newest chapter, where Beast Boy, Wildebeest, and their two new mutant companions set off on their planned recon mission, only to end up getting lost and later meeting up unexpectedly with one of the more pleasant aspects of Beast Boy's old life in Upper Lamumba. Sound worth a read after this ungodly long wait? I certainly hope so! Here's to also hoping you read, review, and enjoy!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. Also, credit to MetroXLR99 for a character name I've chosen to borrow from his (admittedly pretty darn awesome) fic The Lonely Beast for the sake of another OC I introduce in this chapter. All that said, onward with the fic dudes!**

**Chapter 10:**

**An Unexpected Reunion**

Meanwhile, miles away from the main lab, Beast Boy, Wildebeest, and their two mutant feline companions were already hard at work trekking their way through the jungle for the sake of their planned recon on the 'sister location'. So far, they were making good progress. Or at least, Jungle Cat and Ambush claimed as much. But considering how otherwise easy to get lost in the jungle appeared to be, Beast Boy and Wildebeest had hardly any other choice but to take their word for it.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Beast Boy asked. He pointed at a nearby withered and gnarled tree. "I could have sworn we passed this very same tree not too long ago."

"Beast Boy," Jungle Cat stated calmly, yet tersely. "Ambush and I have traveled this path plenty of times before. Yes, this is indeed the right way."

"We'll get there when we get there," Ambush stated.

Beast Boy glared at the tigress mutant as she seemingly quite nonchalantly swung through the trees with her paws and tail, irritated that she now clearly remembered how many times he'd ended up asking 'are we there yet' over the course of the previous hour before finally deciding to just trust the two feline mutants' judgment on the matter. "And I thought elephants were the ones who never forgot," he thought witheringly to himself.

As if on an unexpected cue, the sound of elephant trumpeting filled the air. The four travelers paused, briefly stunned, yet also intrigued, by the sound of the mighty animals nearby. Then Beast Boy silently moved towards some nearby trees and peeked through the space between them, his eyes reflexively widening at the sight of a small herd walking peacefully along their merry way along the opposite side of a river a couple feet or so away. Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat joined him, nodding their own heads in respectful awe at the sight of the creatures.

"It is always a pleasure to see elephants alive, and in the flesh," said Jungle Cat.

"Indeed," Ambush agreed, a toothy grin on her face as she observed the traveling elephants.

"I've seen you turn into an elephant," Wildebeest stated, a sidelong glance being directed towards Beast Boy. "But I'll freely admit, I'm probably very lucky right now to see real wild elephants."

"You are especially lucky to see them here in Lamumba," Jungle Cat stated. He nodded his head. "Considering how many erumpents have ended up staking their claim for territory in the jungles and savannas of Lamumba, one could easily consider it a miracle that native African elephants still even bother to travel into Lamumba, let alone spend longer than absolutely necessary here."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "You mean those rhino-like things from Harry Potter?"

"I do not recall any rhino-like animals in Harry Potter," said Wildebeest, clearly confused.

"They were described in a supplementary book," Beast Boy stated. "I'll explain more later."

"Whatever the case, they certainly are rhino-like," Jungle Cat stated. "Except also expanded to the size of an elephant, granted elephant-like ears, long dinosaur-like tails, and horns just slightly longer than a school bus."

Wildebeest gulped, his grayish fur seeming to briefly turn a shade lighter in his newfound sense of nerves. "I certainly don't think I'd envy anything that ends up on the wrong side of a horn like that."

"No, you would not," Ambush agreed. She nodded her head. "Especially since, assuming the goring alone wouldn't instantly kill you, the venom contained within an erumpent's horn would almost certainly do the trick instead."

"Venom?!" Wildebeest shrieked, miraculously not managing to be overheard by the elephant herd. "Why would an herbivore need venom?!"

"The venom of an erumpent's horn is no ordinary venom," Jungle Cat explained. "In fact, most creatures smaller than an elephant that succumb to this particular brand of venom leave precious little for any carnivores to eat once dead."

"He's right," Beast Boy chimed in, now having made the connection between this apparent venom and what he knew of the erumpents from Harry Potter. "Get stabbed by an erumpent, and it will be as if you got bitten by that monster from Cloverfield."

Wildebeest raised his eyebrow, confused once more. "Ok; translation for those of us not yet old enough to see that movie?"

Beast Boy let out a nervous chuckle, a sheepish grin on his face as he now remembered that Wildebeest was still 10, going on 11. "You'll explode."

"Oh." Wildebeest gulped, and then nodded his head. "Got it. Yep, definitely not good."

"No kidding." Jungle Cat shook his head side to side. "But at any rate, yes, an erumpent is not an animal you want to have for an enemy. In fact, as it currently stands, very few animals are even capable of surviving a fight against an erumpent, let alone killing one."

"Like what?" Beast Boy asked, now genuinely curious.

"Well to start," Ambush began. "The nundu is currently the only known confirmed natural predator for erumpents."

Beast Boy thought to himself, remembering the 7 juveniles and single adult that he and his friends had encountered. "Makes sense," he admitted.

"Indeed," Jungle Cat agreed. "For not only are they big enough, but they have also been visually confirmed to be immune to the explosive venom within erumpent horns. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was an erumpent that was responsible for crippling that one adult you said that you and your friends encountered yesterday."

"Noted." Beast Boy thought to himself. "You said that nundus are the only confirmed natural predator against them. I'm guessing that means there are some others that could potentially be such, but just haven't been confirmed?"

"Correct." Jungle Cat nodded his head. "It has been theorized that the kasai-rex might also occasionally hunt erumpents. Granted, this so far remains only a theory. But since kasai-rex have already been confirmed to be immune to the impressively lethal bacteria within the skin and blood of brontopods, their natural prey, they could very well have similar immunity to erumpent venom."

Ambush nodded her own head in agreement. "And on a separate note, there is also the grootslang."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "You mean that elephant snake hybrid thing?"

"The snake hybrid part is somewhat exaggerated," Ambush stated. "But yes, grootslangs are indeed real as well. They look somewhat like greenish gray skinned versions of oliphaunts from Lord of the Rings, the males have ram-like horns, and they are all rumored to be descendants of Indra's three-headed mount Erawan."

"Indeed," said Jungle Cat. "But despite being herbivores, what little knowledge mythozoologists have currently gathered about them has indicated that, for some reason or other, grootslangs and erumpents appear to have an immensely brutal natural enmity between them. And by brutal, I mean that they have been observed to seemingly attack and kill each other for no reason other than seemingly sheer spite." He then pointed at the blissfully traveling elephant herd. "And unfortunately, ordinary elephants just happen to look, sound, and smell just similarly enough like a grootslang to an erumpent in order for them to often end up falling victim to attacks from erumpents. And while grootslangs are big enough to end up exploding, ordinary elephants usually end up torn in half so quickly upon getting stabbed that they don't even get the chance to have enough venom injected into them to trigger an explosion."

"I'll say." Beast Boy nodded his head. "Kind of reminds me of that cryptid I've heard about called the emela-ntouka."

"As it so happens, that very cryptid you've just mentioned is in fact an erumpent."

Beast Boy briefly gaped in surprise at Ambush. Then he thought to himself. "Huh," he eventually stated. "Small world."

"Quite." Jungle Cat nodded his head. Then he looked up towards the sun. "Come on," he then stated. "We'd best get moving. I daresay we've spent enough time watching these elephants for the moment."

"Right, of course," Ambush agreed. "Come on," she stated. "The sooner we get to the sister location, the better."

Wildebeest and Beast Boy were very quick to agree upon receiving the reminder of their originally intended goal for the day, and they followed the two feline mutants as they resumed their trek to the sister location. But even as they did so, Beast Boy couldn't help but keep thinking over the information he'd just now learned. For some reason or other, the parts of his instincts that weren't caught up in the virus-induced rage craze that all his various animal forms were acting out upon were now giving him a strong feeling that his newly gained knowledge, particularly on erumpents, would prove very important to remember in the near future.

. . . . .

About an hour later, the four travelers found themselves gaping incredulously at the sight that now lay before them. They were now standing at the entrance to a very long jungle clearing. According to Jungle Cat and Ambush, this very clearing was an especially recognizable area that they'd often traveled through in past travels from the sister location to their current hideout, and vice versa. Unfortunately, unlike all the other times they'd apparently traveled through this clearing, this time the clearing was very much occupied.

The entire clearing was jam packed with a massive herd of brontopods. As the four young teenagers watched, the gigantic beasts milled leisurely around the clearing, digging in the ground, browsing on leaves from the trees surrounding the clearing, and likewise minding their own business in complete unawareness of the fact that they were being watched. Eventually, Jungle Cat sighed heavily, shaking his head side to side as he glared irritably at the herd of sauropods. "Wonderful," he grumbled. "Just…wonderful."

"I hear you." Beast Boy nodded his head. "Elephants can get pretty nervous when small creatures and objects are very close to their feet. I wouldn't be surprised if sauropods like these guys get a similar feeling if we try to walk through this clearing while they're here."

"It's not just that," Jungle Cat stated. He pointed one of his clawed fingers at one of the groups amongst the herd that was currently in the midst of digging holes in the ground. "See those members of the herd that are digging? They're making nests. I completely forgot that this was around the time of the year that brontopods have their mating and breeding seasons."

Beast Boy gulped, eyes widening as he realized just what Jungle Cat was implying with this newly revealed information. "Ok yeah," the changeling admitted. "This will definitely be problematic."

"No kidding," said Ambush. "They'd already be skittish and unnerved by us walking amongst them in even the best of times. But now? This close to laying their eggs? They'll be even more territorial and defensive; probably to the point of making it impossible for us to travel through this clearing while they're here without them attacking or killing us."

"It certainly doesn't help that they could easily mistake you and Jungle Cat for predators trying to hunt them or eat their eggs," Wildebeest chimed in.

Jungle Cat and Ambush nodded their heads grimly, all too aware of the truth in their fellow Wildebeest Society experiment's comment. Beast Boy also nodded in agreement, but then looked back at the brontopods, his eyes narrowed as he carefully observed them. In particular, he managed to take note of a couple subtle details that allowed them to very subtly stand out from all the 'extinct sauropods' he already recognized amongst the animals he'd previously turned into or known he had the option of turning into. Specifically, he noticed that they had dark black stripes across their backs, necks, and tails that appeared to be rather unsubtly shaped like lightning bolts. He also noticed what appeared to be tiny lightning-bolt shaped horns on the tips of their noses, with the ones on the blue-gray scaled members' noses looking slightly bigger than the ones on the red-brown scaled members' noses. His eyes narrowed further as he now properly took note of another particularly interesting detail.

"What's with the ones that are red instead of blue?"

"Those are the females," Ambush explained. "The ones with the same coloring as the one you saw yesterday are the males."

Beast Boy thought to himself some more, the three mutants all turning their gaze to him. It was starting to seem highly likely that the changeling was thinking up some sort of plan on how to possibly get past the brontopod herd. The changeling kept thinking to himself, carefully going over all the important information he could think of considering while also mentally wrestling to keep his animal forms under control at the same time. Strangely, one animal form in particular that he noticed was acting especially odd compared to the mindlessly raging majority of his forms, the gleefully hungry and eager to hunt allosaurus form, and still strangely calm and completely in control Beast, was his hippo form, which was now strangely acting as if it were panicking and in fright. And that was without taking into account a surprisingly large number of other apparent animal forms inside him that, for some reason, he had never even noticed until just the previous evening…one of which, seemed strangely enough just barely similar to all of his more familiar sauropod forms, yet also just slightly different for some reason, to allow him to think up the idea he was currently considering.

Trying his best to stay focused and in control, the changeling looked to Jungle Cat. "About how long do you think it could take for us to reach the sister location if we were to take an alternate route?"

"Possibly an hour or two more than if we traveled straight through this clearing," the lion mutant responded. "And that would be assuming we didn't get lost in the process of trying to make our way back to the familiar path."

"Noted." Beast Boy nodded his head, and then pointed his finger towards the brontopod herd. "How do you think they'd react if a green brontopod they'd never met before were to come walking by them?"

At the sound of this, his three companions raised their eyebrows. "Why do you ask?" Wildebeest asked.

Beast Boy chuckled nervously. "Well to put it simply, I may have an idea on how to get through this clearing without them freaking out on us."

Ambush and Jungle Cat narrowed their eyes irritably. "Well duh, obviously," Ambush snarled. "Would help if you'd be a bit more specific here."

"Indeed," Jungle Cat growled in agreement.

Wildebeest, however, had already managed to catch on to what Beast Boy was planning far more quickly than the two older mutants, and his eyes widened. "You're not seriously considering trying to turn into a brontopod are you?"

Ambush and Jungle Cat looked at Wildebeest, and then at Beast Boy, now genuinely curious. "Is that what you are planning?" The lion mutant asked.

Beast Boy nodded his head. "Admittedly, I don't know for certain that I can. But I currently have reason to believe that it's possible."

The three mutants raised their eyebrows. "And how might that be possible?" Wildebeest asked.

Beast Boy chuckled nervously, running his hand through his hair with a sheepish look on his face. "Well to start, I did notice a bunch of unfamiliar animal form minds inside my head late last night." At the sight of the three mutants narrowing their eyes, he gulped. "Something I'll freely admit, I probably should have mentioned earlier."

"You think?" Ambush hissed.

"Anyway," Beast Boy continued, trying his best to ignore the irritated glares on the faces of the two feline mutants. "From what I've observed so far of those unfamiliar animals amongst my forms, one of them appears to be just similar enough, yet also different, to all my more familiar sauropod morphs that I'm sure it can be reasonable to suspect that it might perhaps be a brontopod form."

"How can you even be sure that you're even capable of turning into one at all?" Wildebeest asked, half confused and half curious. "I thought you couldn't transform into fantastical animals."

"Well for a good long while I've believed that to be the case," Beast Boy admitted. "But I've got to admit, all these unfamiliar animal forms that I'm suddenly seeing in my mind alongside all the more familiar minds I've channeled obviously came from somewhere. And besides, now that I think about it, I _have_ proven capable of turning into a sasquatch before, and I only found that out after actually meeting one in the wild during my time with the Doom Patrol. But yeah, if I can turn into a sasquatch, who's to say I can't turn into other mythical animals?"

Wildebeest thought to himself. "Well, I suppose that's a fair point," he eventually admitted.

"Nonetheless, this plan is still fraught with risks."

Ambush nodded in agreement at Jungle Cat's summation. "Indeed." She looked at Beast Boy. "For starters, assuming you even _can_ turn into a brontopod, something that I might add you are currently only suspecting, then just what exactly did you have in mind? Just go walk right through the clearing in that form and expect them not to react?"

Beast Boy thought to himself, ruefully admitting in his mind that, in a sense, his plan had more or less amounted to what Ambush had just suggested. "Well…"

"And assuming that _is_ what you were in fact planning," Ambush broke in. "Then considering how much of an animal expert I presume you are by virtue of your powers, you of all people really should be well aware that, assuming they aren't made wary by the fact that you'd still be green even if you did manage to turn into one of them, an entire herd of them would very rarely, if ever, just let some random stranger amongst their kind, let alone a male one, just go waltzing amongst them without feeling at least somewhat wary. And that's being optimistic considering how you'd at the very least have to acquire permission from the matriarch." She pointed her finger towards a particularly large female amongst the herd as she said this last bit, evidently indicating her to be the aforementioned matriarch.

The changeling grimaced, half out of realizing the truth of what Ambush had said and half in annoyance at the very unusually fearful behavior his hippo form was currently demonstrating, and then nodded ruefully in agreement. "Well ok," he admitted. "I did forget to think about that."

"I'll say," Jungle Cat stated before then shaking his head side to side. "And even without all that to consider, what exactly did you have in mind in regard to how you'd get the three of us through alongside you? The herd would hardly be quick to trust you if they were to see two seeming carnivores like Ambush and I, let alone Wildebeest, just walking in with you or riding on your back. They do have decent eyesight by dinosaur standards, and they're not so stupid as to not notice us if we were to try either of those two options."

"Well I was considering having you be secured to my belly with vines while I was in brontopod form," Beast Boy stated, sounding completely calm while mentally gritting his teeth at yet another round of panicked whimpering coming from his hippo form's mind.

"Hmm," Wildebeest thought to himself. "That possibly could have worked."

"Not a bad idea," Jungle Cat agreed. "But it still could take a while to find enough vines to suit the purpose of such a plan. And then you'd still probably have to explain the reasoning behind the fact to the herd without giving away the fact that you were secretly transporting us through alongside you."

"And even if there weren't all that to worry about," Ambush joined in. "There's something else to be considered." She looked back at Beast Boy. "Answer me this, even under the best of circumstances, have you ever had any difficulty in keeping your mind in the dominant position and in control when in the shape of one of your animal forms?"

Beast Boy thought to himself, desperately working to keep all of his animal forms, but especially his still strangely panic-stricken hippo form, under control. "Well now that you mention it, I do always have to undergo a little struggle against the mind of an animal form every time I assume said form for the very first time. Granted, that sense of struggle is always present every subsequent time I use a form, but the 1st time I assume any of my forms is always the hardest in that regard." He raised his eyebrow. "And now that I'm saying this, I'm starting to get an idea where you're going with this."

Ambush nodded her head in a clear 'I rest my case' fashion. "Correct. Like you've just admitted, the first time you ever use a specific form always results in a particularly difficult struggle against that form's mind to keep your own mind in control. And with your current heightened difficulty at even keeping yourself in control of all the other forms you're already familiar with and have used thanks to that virus, I'd hardly consider this to be the best time to try to experiment with brand new forms that you've never even noticed before."

"She's right," Jungle Cat agreed. "And speaking of your current problems regarding your control of your animal forms, what if one of your other animal forms ended up taking control right as you were in the midst of walking through the nesting ground? I know very well that an incident like that could very easily spell trouble for us if you ended up turning into a carnivore, or worse, a hippo."

Upon hearing this last bit, Beast Boy frowned in confusion while simultaneously working to once again try to fully reassert control over his hippo form. "Ok, why would my hippo form be so unwelcome in this situation?"

"Are you familiar with the cryptid known as Mokele Mbembe?" Jungle Cat asked.

"Yeah," Beast Boy responded, now feeling even more confused. "But what does that have to do with…"

"RUN!" Beast Boy's hippo form abruptly bellowed from inside the changeling's head, considerably louder than the last few times it had acted in this manner. "WE MUST GET OUT OF HERE! NOW! BEFORE THEY KILL US!"

Beast Boy winced, his eyes clenched shut and his teeth gritted at this particularly inconvenient outburst from his hippo form. "Shut up, shut up, shut up…"

"RUN!"

In that brief instant, the hippo mind took over, letting out a boomingly loud bellow of terror the second the changeling's unwilling transformation was complete and had assumed the hippo form's shape.

Dead silence filled the air immediately following this bellow. And no sooner had the hippo form realized itself just what it had done when Beast Boy's own mind violently yanked back control and reverted his body back to his human form. Briefly confused at the sudden silence, the changeling looked to his three companions, only to gulp nervously at the sight of the half horrified and half furious looks on the faces of Jungle Cat and Ambush, as well as the quite nervous look on the face of Wildebeest.

"You've _really_ done it now," Ambush hissed bitterly.

"What do you mean…?" Beast Boy began before he then froze, his eyes widening as he finally remembered an immensely unpleasant detail about the cryptid Mokele Mbembe. Specifically, its rather vicious unexplained tendency to violently attack and kill any hippos in its territory on sight. And now that he was quite reasonably certain that brontopods and the Mokele Mbembe were in fact one and the same…

The changeling gulped, directed a brief side glance towards the clearing full of brontopods, mentally wincing at the sight of almost the entire herd looking very suddenly alarmed, whereas the matriarch was now directing a very ominously angry looking glare in their direction. "Oh…crud…"

"HHHHWWWWLLLLRRRREEEEAAAAHHHH!" The matriarch bellowed, tendrils of electricity already present in her open mouth as she started charging her lightning breath attack.

Jungle Cat and Ambush reacted instantly. "RUN!" They both roared in unison as they promptly bolted and started running as fast as they could away from the clearing. Beast Boy and Wildebeest took only seconds to start running away as well close behind them. This proved especially fortuitous when the matriarch's lightning breath struck the ground they'd been standing at mere seconds after they'd gotten out of range.

The matriarch noticed the fleeing humanoids, bellowed in rage once again, and then started charging after them, two other females following close behind to aid her. Just like that, the chase was on.

. . . . .

About a quarter of an hour later, the four young travelers were still running, the three brontopods pursuing them proving deceptively fast for their size as they continued to remain relatively close behind. The sauropods bellowed and rumbled, their tails swinging side to side, and lightning bolt after lightning bolt being fired from their mouths in their furious efforts at blasting the territory intruders they were now chasing.

"Good grief these things are fast," Wildebeest panted as he and his three companions kept running desperately to both remain ahead of the three sauropods and out of the range of their lightning bolt breath. Beast Boy hooted and panted in agreement while still remaining in chimpanzee form, and then hurriedly leaped from one tree to the next just in time to avoid getting caught in the blast when the tree he'd been on before exploded into ash and bark after getting struck by a burst of lightning from one of the brontopods.

Wildebeest noticed this and gasped in half exhaustion and half annoyance. "Why are they even still chasing us?! There aren't even any hippos amongst us!"

"Right now," Ambush explained, "they're too angry about the fact we were technically intruding upon their territory to care about the lack of hippos." She shook her head side to side while still running. "And I cannot believe that I actually just said something like that in full seriousness."

A burst of lightning struck the ground inches behind her, causing her to reflexively jump in fright, but fortunately without losing her footing. Jungle Cat noticed this; and was very quick to make his thoughts clear. "Less chit chat, more running!"

"HHHHWWWWLLLLRRRREEEEAAAAHHHH!"

A triple burst of lightning bolts struck the ground behind the four fleeing travelers, galvanizing them into a burst of extra speed. Beast Boy turned into a parrot so that he could talk and fly at the same time. "What do we have to lose those things?!"

"We just need to at least get out of their territory," said Jungle Cat.

"He's right," Ambush agreed. "If we can get past the edge of their territory, they should back down and stop chasing us if we get far enough outside before they arrive at the edge themselves."

"How will we know when we've reached the edge?!" Wildebeest yelled.

"Quite simple really," Jungle Cat responded, sounding somewhat surprised by this apparent detail. "We just need to find a tree with a zigzag shaped scratch on the trunk."

"You mean like that?"

At the sound of Beast Boy's question, the three mutants looked in the direction that the shapeshifter was rapidly flailing his parrot form's right wing in the direction of. Sure enough, one tree in the very center of a long row had a lightning bolt-shaped scratch on the trunk.

"_Exactly_," Jungle Cat stated, damn near purring. "Come on guys! We'll be out of trouble soon!"

The four young travelers hurried over towards the row of trees with the all-important territory marking, a trio of lightning bolts mercilessly zapping the ground where they'd been positioned immediately before they'd started running in that particular direction and the sound of the three sauropods' enraged bellows and quaking footsteps continued to split the air. Before long, they reached the line of trees…only to then very abruptly screech to a halt upon realizing that there was a cliff edge complete with a sheer drop right on the other side of the trees in question.

"Good Godfrey," Ambush snarled as she just barely stopped herself in time, her claws leaving noticeable scratch marks on the ground as she used them to bring herself to a halt.

"No kidding," Wildebeest grunted.

Beast Boy looked down over the edge of the cliff, gulped upon seeing both the long distance to the bottom and the large river positioned right at the very bottom, and then directed a nervous look towards his three companions. "This complicates things."

Jungle Cat snarled. "Yeah, no sh…"

"HHHHWWWWLLLLRRRREEEEAAAAHHHH!"

The four travelers all blanched, eyes widened in horror, at the sound of the three brontopods still chasing them and starting to get very disturbingly close to their current position. But it was the sound of them charging their lightning breath while still running that got the four travelers to act.

"Ok that's it," said Jungle Cat. "We're gonna have to jump!"

"Down _this_!?" Beast Boy asked.

"You got any better ideas?!"

The three mutants all looked to Beast Boy, who gulped, turning a slightly lighter shade of green as he realized just how limited the options currently were, all as the sound of the charging lightning bolt breath and running sauropod feet continued to get closer and louder. "No…," he eventually managed to weakly state.

"THEN JUMP!"

At the exact same time both feline mutants yelled this in unison, they grabbed Wildebeest and Beast Boy by the shoulders and leaped over the edge of the cliff, dragging their two companions right over and down with them. A trio of lightning bolts blasted the ground they'd been standing on literally seconds after they jumped.

For a few seconds the four travelers plummeted, screaming instinctively in fright and exhilaration as they fell. But as it turned out, the fall wasn't entirely as big as Beast Boy had initially thought, for the distance turned out to be just short enough for the water to not be like asphalt when he and the three mutants landed in the river. By the time they resurfaced, gasping reflexively upon being able to access air once more, they had already been swept at least a couple yards downstream.

At the sound of bellowing, the four travelers looked behind them in time to see the three brontopods that had been chasing them standing atop the cliff they'd just jumped off of and staring their way. The matriarch bellowed again, seemingly half in rage at their targets' escape and half in triumph as if to say, 'and stay out'. Her two companions, meanwhile, fired a burst of lightning each into the sky as if to reinforce their leader's message.

Wildebeest whistled silently at the sight of this. "Note to self, never piss off a brontopod."

"That lesson wasn't obvious already?"

Wildebeest directed a sheepish look towards Jungle Cat. "That was an attempt at joking to relieve stress."

"Oh."

"HHHHWWWWLLLLRRRREEEEAAAAHHHH!"

The four travelers looked back at the brontopods one more time just in time to see them direct an apparent warning glare towards them before then snorting, turning around, and walking away. It appeared that they were satisfied enough with the earlier intruders' current distance outside their territory to return to the nesting ground.

Immediately after the three sauropods had completely vanished behind the line of trees, Beast Boy looked to Jungle Cat and Ambush as they all continued to float downstream. "What now dudes?"

"Will let the river carry us for another few minutes or so," said Ambush. "See how far we can travel using it."

"Indeed," Jungle Cat agreed. "And once we've decided an appropriate point to get back on land, we'll see if we can find another way to get ourselves back on a familiar path to the sister location without encountering that herd of brontopods a 2nd time."

. . . . .

Two hours later, it became painfully clear that the four travelers were now lost in the jungle. They were now resting in a clearing, relieved to so far still be safe after the excitement from earlier, but also somewhat bitter and in a funk over how things had nonetheless gone somewhat downhill for them.

"Well this stinks," said Beast Boy.

"Tell me about it," Wildebeest grumbled.

"I will admit," said Ambush. "This voyage could have gone better."

"Agreed." Jungle Cat nodded his head. Then he directed an apologetic look towards Beast Boy and Wildebeest. "I really am sorry about this. If I'd just remembered that this was the time of year that brontopods have their mating and breeding season and liked to use that particular clearing as one of their possible nesting grounds, Ambush and I could have easily figured out an alternate route to bypass them that would have still allowed us to travel through relatively familiar land on our end instead of having to guess our way through unfamiliar territory."

"It's alright," said Beast Boy. "It's not your fault." He sighed. "If anything, one could say I have just as much blame considering I'm the one who had us stick around longer to talk about my initial idea to try to experiment with a possible brontopod form in my current condition, not to mention being completely ignorant of both how they tend to behave around hippos as well as how my hippo form was behaving until it was too late."

Ambush and Jungle Cat ruefully nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well whoever's fault it is," Wildebeest broke in. "The fact still remains that we're currently lost in the jungle, are probably miles away from the Wildebeest Society sister location, and could very well end up forced to spend the night camping out in the open jungle if we don't somehow manage to at least find our way back to that cave we slept at last night."

"At this rate, we probably will have to camp out here in the jungle," Ambush grumbled. "At this rate, I highly doubt we'll have any reasonable chance of making it back to familiar ground in time to reach that cave of ours by nightfall."

"In that case," said Jungle Cat. "What will be, will be."

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Beast Boy asked.

"We'll continue resting here for another couple of minutes or so," Jungle Cat responded. "And once we feel sufficiently rested, we'll start moving again to see how much ground we could potentially cover while it's still light out."

"Indeed." Ambush nodded her head. "And when it starts getting dark, we'll make sure to set up camp at the nearest suitable campsite we can find. And from there, we'll make sure to have a watch schedule set up. Admittedly, not the most ideal of plans in this environment, but it's better than nothing."

Beast Boy and Wildebeest nodded, realizing that, as uncomfortable as this potential upcoming camping situation sounded to them, they'd likely just have to suck it up for now.

Then there was rustling in the undergrowth nearby, and all four young travelers instantly went alert. Beast Boy in particular instantly looked in the direction the noise had come from. "Who's there?!"

There was a brief silence as whatever was responsible for the rustling noises seemingly stopped moving. The four beastly travelers remained on guard, ears open for any further noise. Eventually, they heard some more rustling, as well as what sounded like soft light footsteps. The four travelers felt slightly relieved at this, as this likely meant that whatever was now moving around in the undergrowth nearby was likely something small or of a more conventional size rather than a giant like a brontopod or kasai-rex. Nonetheless, they were not about to outright dismiss the possibility of whatever was now seemingly stalking them still being dangerous in some way.

The footsteps and rustling seemed to get closer, at which point Jungle Cat and Ambush both let out an earthshaking roar in unison. There was a sound of what appeared to be something slipping, followed by a reflexive hiss, plus what sounded like a whispered cursing. Beast Boy's eyes widened, and then narrowed smugly, a smirk coming on his face. It was now very likely indeed, judging by the whispered cursing he'd just heard, that the apparent stalker was a human.

He took a step forward. "I know you can hear me," he said, making himself look as intimidating as possible while still in human form. "And I'd back off now if I were you. Trust me, my friends here are a lot tougher than you're probably hoping they'll be if you're just a simple native hunter. And as for me? I've dealt with a lot worse than you. In fact,…"

He pointed at himself, a half proud and half warning look on his face. "You see me right now? You're looking at the sole human survivor of one of the deadliest viruses this entire continent has to offer! If I can survive something like _that_, I most definitely can take on whatever you have to throw at me!"

There was an unexpectedly long pause after Beast Boy said all this. Then, equally unexpectedly, an undeniably human voice from within the undergrowth said, "Garfield?"

The four beastly travelers were all still standing still, mutually confused and dumbfounded at this unexpected comment, when a young man dressed in clear tribal clothing that appeared to be around the same age as Beast Boy stepped slowly out of the undergrowth, a half shocked and half joyous look on his dark face, and a long spear held in a now nonthreatening position in his right hand. "Is it really you?"

Beast Boy was still confused. His three more visually animalistic companions, however, had eyes only for the spear, and they all tensed up, snarling and grumbling viciously while preparing to potentially defend themselves in the event the young man threw it at them. The young man noticed this, and swiftly raised his left hand in a placatory gesture.

"Easy now," he stated. "I mean no harm."

As if to emphasize this, he carefully, and slowly, lowered his spear down to the ground, lightly sending it rolling two feet or so behind him with a backwards push from his foot for good measure. "See? I mean no harm." He looked at Beast Boy once more. "Especially now that I know that one of the supposed 'demons' I was sent to hunt is in fact you Garfield."

Jungle Cat, Ambush, and Wildebeest all looked to Beast Boy, confused once more.

"You know this guy?" Jungle Cat asked.

"And why is he calling you Garfield?" Wildebeest asked.

Beast Boy sighed. "To answer your question Wildebeest, that's my civilian name." He looked to Jungle Cat and Ambush, the latter seemingly quite amused. Clearly, she was familiar with the comic strip starring a quite famous fat cat of the same name. "And as for your question Jungle Cat, I don't think I remember seeing him before."

"I am not surprised."

The dark-skinned young tribesman nodded his head. "After all, you and I both were but mere little boys when last we laid eyes on each other. But I will freely say this, the rest of my people will be just as happy to see you again as I am. My father especially so." He then lifted his left arm, turning it so that the back of his wrist was in full view of the changeling. "And at the very least, perhaps you will recognize this?" He said that last bit while pointing at a slight scar present on that wrist.

The three mutants looked confusedly at Beast Boy once more, but Beast Boy was now directing a narrow-eyed look of concentration on his face towards the scar, seemingly indeed finding it familiar, but not sure why…

…but then his eyes widened as he finally realized _exactly_ why that scar seemed so familiar. Specifically, the young man now standing before him had accidentally cut himself there with a carelessly lying around spear when he'd still been a young child. And in that instant, Beast Boy finally put two and two together and realized just who this person actually was.

"Mumbyo?" Beast Boy asked, still scarcely daring to believe this person was truly who he now suspected it to be.

Mumbyo grinned. "There it is," he said. "I knew you'd remember me sooner or later."

"Well thank goodness for that," Beast Boy agreed. He chuckled, letting out his distinctive high-pitched laugh in the process, and then extended his right hand as if offering a handshake. "Man, it's been so long!"

"That is quite the understatement," Mumbyo agreed as he extended his own hand to accept the changeling's offered handshake. The two boys shook hands vigorously, chuckling with toothy grins on their faces in the process.

They ended the handshake, Beast Boy laughing again. "Wow dude," he stated. "You've really gotten strong. And I see you've finally gotten a handle on using a spear."

"Indeed. I had a feeling you'd be proud about that."

"I'll say." Beast Boy shook his head side to side in bemusement. "Man, how's everything been the last few years? Is everything alright?"

"I daresay it is. Admittedly, we've had to deal with some pesky not so friendly white men trying to plunder some of our resources for the sake of their occupation of some unwelcome buildings hidden somewhere in our jungles in recent times. But we've had no trouble unleashing multiple guerrilla raids against these unwelcome guests."

"Really now? Well that ought to be an interesting story for me to hear."

"Indeed," said Jungle Cat's voice from behind him. "And perhaps a similarly interesting story would perhaps be worth telling the three of us right about now?"

Beast Boy directed a sheepish look towards the now even more confused looking Jungle Cat, Ambush, and Wildebeest. In his excitement at recognizing Mumbyo, he had briefly quite forgotten that the three mutants were still present alongside him. "Oh yeah. Of course. Sorry about that dudes." He pointed at Mumbyo. "I mentioned that I used to live here right?" The three mutants nodded in agreement. "Well this fellow here was one of my acquaintances from that time."

Mumbyo chuckled, an amused look on his dark face. "You are being too modest. Allow me." He stepped forward past his green skinned old friend. "This boy leading you, Garfield Logan. He and his parents, the venerable people of blood science Mark and Marie Logan, were very good friends of my tribe over the course of multiple moons they spent living in this land when Garfield was but a child. My father in particular, chieftain king Tawaba, was especially appreciative and enjoying of their company, as he and Garfield's father became fast friends not too long after the family first arrived in our land when my father's foot injury was successfully treated and healed by the medicinal skill of the latter." He then directed a look towards the changeling from out of the corner of his eyes. "And as I recall, my father even allowed you to briefly continue living among us as if you were my own biological brother after your parents' deaths before you ended up forced to return to your birthland by that land's men of law."

Beast Boy nodded his head, a solemn look on his face. "That is correct." He looked at Mumbyo. "Is it bad that part of me is kinda surprised you remembered all that?"

"Oh, really now?" Mumbyo asked, a teasing look of amusement on his face. "I'm offended."

"Well nevertheless," Ambush stated, nodding her head up and down with a warm look of happiness on her furry face. "I'm pleased that you have reunited with this apparent very good old friend from your childhood…Garfield."

"What she said," said Jungle Cat, also nodding his head. He then looked at Mumbyo, a look of curiosity on his face. "Though I am curious, how did you find us? Or better yet, why did you come after us in the first place?"

"Ah that." Mumbyo chuckled, and briefly rubbed the back of his head. "Well let me first ask you this, did you four happen to pass by a river with a heavily gnarled, lightning scorched, and similarly withered old tree nearby the bank?"

Beast Boy and the three mutants raised their eyebrows. As a matter of fact, they _had_ traveled by such a river about an hour or so ago. "Actually, yes," Jungle Cat admitted. "But why…?"

"You likely didn't notice due to the specific side of the tree you were walking on," Mumbyo explained. "But one of the washer women of my village was napping on the ground near that tree when you walked by. She must have gotten woken up in time to see you walking near her location, because she seemed quite beside herself with terror when she eventually came running back to the village in near hysterics without the laundry she'd been cleaning. At first we weren't really sure if it would be wise to really take her seriously in all her rambling and screaming about a supposed group of demons she'd seen at the washing river. But she put up such a fuss and pleaded so much for someone to go out to deal with the supposed demons for the sake of the children that my father eventually decided to have me go out and investigate, even if only to shut her up. But when I noticed your footprints at the river, I will admit that I did initially start to believe that perhaps you were in fact demons." He nodded his head, a smile now on his face. "But now, as you yourselves are equally aware, the supposed demons were in fact you four, and me and my tribe have no reason to be afraid of attacks from demons in the near future."

"That's certainly a relief," said Beast Boy.

"Indeed." Mumbyo turned to face Beast Boy once more, smile still on his face. "And all that said, I must ask, have you any place in which you are currently camping?"

The changeling and his three mutant allies thought to themselves. "Um…" Beast Boy thought to himself. "Not quite yet…"

"Well in that case," Mumbyo stated, walking over to reclaim his spear as he did so. "I propose you and your friends come with me now back to the village."

The four beastly travelers' eyes widened. "Oh wow, really?" Beast Boy stated, half surprised and half excited. "I mean, I'm perfectly willing and all." He pointed at the three mutants. "But my companions here…"

"Nonsense," Mumbyo stated. "Any friends of yours are friends of ours. My father knows this, and he will make just as sure this time that the rest of the tribe knows this as he has any other. Come now, I insist. It has been too long since you were last here amongst us dear friend. And I know they will all be very happy to see you again, my father especially so."

Beast Boy and his three companions looked each other in the eyes. Before long, they all came to an agreement. Considering they're earlier camping plans for this coming evening, Mumbyo's offer certainly sounded like a vast improvement. Not to mention it would certainly be both quite joyous for Beast Boy to reunite with the tribe he and his family had formerly been very strongly acquainted with, as well as interesting for Wildebeest and the two feline mutants to meet them as well. Beast Boy looked to Mumbyo. "Well in that case," he stated. "Let's not keep your father waiting."

"Excellent," said Mumbyo. He picked up his spear, tapped the blunt bottom end of it on the ground twice as if in some sort of ceremonial fashion, and then turned around and started walking back the way he came. "Come now then," he stated proudly. "Let us all return to the village and celebrate both the meeting of some new friends as well as your glorious return dear honorary brother!"

**And just like that, new chapter done! I ****_really_**** hope you like what I have to offer with this one. Especially after the long wait. And once again, credit to MetroXLR99 for the name 'Mumbyo' (a name that he chose to have King Tawaba subjected to an adaptational name change to while I myself have chosen to give to a son of his that I have created completely out of whole cloth). All that said, hope you read, review, and enjoy (and remember, an exact minimum of one review is required to be posted for this new chapter before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted). Once again, hope you enjoy! Stay safe!**

**Coming up Next: With Beast Boy, Wildebeest, and the two feline mutants now very much in good hands, we switch back to Beast Boy's four fellow founding Titans as they find themselves in unfortunately less pleasant hands as captives at the Wildebeest Society Upper Lamumban main lab.**


	12. The Lab

**Hey ya'll! Hope you're ready for more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because here's the newest chapter! In this chapter, we switch back to seeing just how the other founding Titans are faring now that they're serving as Chang's unwilling 'guests'. And in the process, they both meet Chang's benefactor, and discover a secret about him that I'm sure plenty of you who are sufficiently knowledgeable about Beast Boy's history in the comic books (and maybe a couple who aren't) probably already saw coming a mile away. All that said, hope you enjoy what I have to offer here (and that it proves especially happy for you to read with the current craziness still going on). Enjoy!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you all that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based that has ever been present in the show or the comics. Get that? Got that? Good. NOW, onward with the fic!**

**Chapter 11:**

**The Lab**

Robin grumbled, his masked eyes narrowed into a withering glower. "Well this sucks."

"Tell me about it," Cyborg groaned in agreement.

About an hour had passed since their initial capture. And now, the four Titans were locked in a specially designed cell deep within the main lab after having been escorted there through multiple tunnels and past a variety of rooms with clear unpleasant experiments going on. Built like an alcove or giant terrarium carved deep into a wall, the interior was made entirely out of impressively strong titanium. The only exception was the side that served as the entrance and exit, which was filled up with a translucent bright green energy barrier that had already proven itself impervious to all of their efforts at breaking out. The weakest of Cyborg and Starfire's energy blasts had harmlessly fizzled out upon impact, and they didn't dare risk any of their stronger blasts for fear of said blasts being sent ricocheting around the cell and allowing themselves or their friends to potentially get injured. Robin had likewise proven unable to make any progress against the barrier with even the safest appropriate gadgets he had in his utility belt, and he likewise dared not use any of his stronger devices for obvious reasons. And of course, with the ring of Azarathian inhibitor runes along the interior of the walls surrounding the main lab still intact, Raven's own powers were understandably unavailable. As a result, they now found themselves lazily sitting around the center of the cell in a circle, all of them far from happy with their current situation.

"Don't say we didn't warn you Robin," Raven groaned.

The Boy Wonder sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose at the reminder of his brief moment of situational stupidity that had led to him having himself and his current cell mates unwittingly go madly rushing right into the trap Chang had set up for them. "Don't remind me," he grumbled.

"I must admit," Starfire stated. "I am more than the tiny bit worried about just what it is that the Professor Chang wishes to do to us now that we are in his custody."

"Join the club Star," Cyborg agreed. "I don't want to find out the answer to that question the hard way anymore than you do." He pointed towards the area outside their cell. "Especially not if it means getting placed in those domes over there."

True to Cyborg's word, the cell appeared to be directly within a room where experiments were actively carried out, if the one particularly large machine in the middle of the room that consisted of four reinforced glass domes connected to a series of four pipes attached to one long pipe positioned above some sort of strange elevated glass globe was any indication. And as it so happened, Robin already had a good idea of exactly what this collection of machinery was for. And he did not at all relish the idea of he and his friends ending up in those domes themselves in the event this suspicion was correct.

Starfire looked to her boyfriend. "What should we do Robin?"

"I'm afraid there's not much we _can_ do right now Star," said Raven. The sorceress nodded her head, lowering her hood soon afterward. "As has already been demonstrated, with my powers on lockdown and the rest of you having no luck in getting rid of that barrier, not to mention it being likely highly inefficient, if not futile, to try to burrow our way out through all this titanium, it will be impressively difficult at the very least to get out of this cell without somebody outside letting us out for us."

"Raven's right." Robin nodded his head in agreement. "And considering how Chang also took the liberty to remove our communicators." He directed a meaningful look at a very glaringly out of place red sundial shaped device attached to a chain that seemed to be magnetically attached to the area on Cyborg's arm where his video-phone software was located. "And also placed that annoying lock on your communications device, we're certainly not in any position to summon any help."

"No kidding," Cyborg grumbled as he directed a withering glare at the aforementioned lock that had been placed on his arm.

"At the very least," Robin then explained. "The best thing we can do is at least wait until we absolutely know for sure just what it is that Chang, any anybody else he may or may not be working for, plan to do to us before we worry too much more about how to escape." He briefly turned his head to look behind him and outside the cell once more. "Granted, it's probably a given that we're likely going to be used as bait to get Beast Boy to come for whatever reason he was determined worth infecting with Primetia. But regardless, it's always best to be 100% certain on the facts whenever possible."

"Got that right," Raven droned.

"Agreed," said Starfire.

"Well I don't know about ya'll then," said Cyborg. "But I do hope that if Chang is still as insufferably proud of his own intellect and scientific prowess as he's been the last few times we've dealt with him, then he doesn't keep us waiting too much longer before he comes to brag about what he has in mind. Because _man_ am I starting to get bored sitting around here with nothing to do but either wallow in self-pity or risk falling victim to ambiguously existent mind games."

"Speak for yourself," Raven stated in her usual tone of voice, but not without showing slight hints of amusement.

"Agreed," said Robin, a slight smirk of amusement on his own face. Even Starfire could not help but let out a brief giggle.

The sound of a door opening filled the air, and the imprisoned Titans looked outside their cell in time to see none other than Chang himself enter the room alongside two of his own underlings, plus 9 Wildebeest Society members. Four of them were dressed in the same reddish-brown cloaks and golden brooches as the myriad other such members that had been present at their capture, had their hoods raised, and were armed with crossbows. The remaining five all had their hoods down. And while the particularly imposing ginger-haired man dressed in a white cloak with a grayish-purple brooch was instantly recognized due to having been present himself right there alongside Chang at the moment of the trap's successfully getting sprung, the four others alongside him that were dressed in blueish-gray cloaks that came with blood red brooches were people they were quite confident had not been present earlier.

Chang seemed especially happy as he and his apparent retinue came to a stop not too far in front of the barrier keeping the Titans from leaving the cell. "Good afternoon Titans," he stated, a happy grin still present on his wizened and wrinkly face. "I trust you are comfortable?"

The four Titans only glared at him, and he promptly chuckled in response.

"Ah, always so defiant even when the odds are quite humorously high against you, I like it." He chuckled again. "I will say this again though, it's a real pity you're green shapeshifter friend couldn't be here today. There's so much I've been wanting to tell you all about since last time we met and I daresay it will be a bit annoying to have to say it all a 2nd time in the event he ever does show up."

"Sorry to disappoint," Raven growled.

"No kidding," Robin grumbled before standing up straight, turning his full body around to face Chang, and slamming both his fists against the barrier. "Enough games Chang! We know you've got something planned for us! And considering how that little stunt you managed to pull against Beast Boy yesterday isn't exactly your style, I'm willing to bet cash money that there's someone else you're working for that has big plans for him. And since you already have us at your mercy, you might as well stop beating around the bush and tell us who you're working for, what he or she plans to do with that Primetia virus, and what Beast Boy has to do with any of it! Because right now, even it _was_ your style to play games, you're not going to get anywhere trying to do so against us."

"You heard him," Cyborg growled in agreement. He pointed his finger accusingly at the scientist. "Cut the horse manure and tell us what you and your new boss have in mind for us. You obviously wanted us here alive for a reason!"

"What they said," Starfire hissed, her fists clenched and encased in starbolts while her eyes glowed solid green. Raven, likewise, directed a withering glare so vicious that it was clear that the inhibitor runes outside the lab were the only things keeping her demon side from joining in and adding fangs and red eyes to the mix.

There was a brief pause as the five Wildebeest Society members with lowered hoods raised their eyebrows and Chang directed what appeared to be a small frowning pout towards the captured Titans. But then Chang smiled and nodded his head. "Very well then," he stated coolly. "If you'd rather be all business now, then so be it."

"Excellent." Robin rammed his right fist against his left palm. "We're listening."

"Very well."

Chang turned his head and nodded at his two underlings, who then departed the room. At this point, one of the blue cloaked Wildebeest Society members, a Latina woman, let what appeared to be a gleeful smirk come on her face. Clearly she knew exactly just what the reason behind the two Chang underlings' departure was; and the Titans had a bad feeling they would not like finding it out themselves. The three other blue cloaked figures, one of them a fair skinned blonde woman, one of them a thin and gangly Caucasian man with mousy brown hair, and the third a well-built Middle Eastern man with a thick beard and salt and pepper hair, maintained a poker faced glare, as did the ginger-haired man in the white cloak, whom they had reason to believe was the leader of the Wildebeest Society. The four red-brown cloaked members, on the other hand, stayed perfectly still while surreptitiously getting their crossbows prepared.

Chang looked back at the captive Titans. "As I'm sure you remember quite well, I was amongst the very first to get subjected to the effects of that freeze machine once you lot managed to miraculously turn the tide against the Brotherhood of Evil. And naturally, when the opportunity came for escape, my boys and I were understandably smart enough to take full advantage of it. However, with our past actions being quite common knowledge, plus our somewhat lower tier power compared to some of the others who'd joined up with the Brotherhood before its defeat last year, we were forced to go very deep into hiding while trying desperately to figure out some way to safely achieve long term avoidance of the law enforcement. But as our luck would eventually have it, someone found us who turned out to be generous enough to provide us with exactly the sanctuary and resources we needed."

It was at this point he gestured to indicate the entire area around him. "And as you can see, all it took was a quietly arranged trip to Africa. And now, we're making exceptionally good progress indeed on achieving our respective goals."

"So basically, you've just spent the last few months serving as a chore boy for the Wildebeest Society," Raven stated.

"Not entirely," Chang responded. "After all, I've never really actually done any of their chores for them. Granted, I _have_ been making use of their headquarters and resources here in Upper Lamumba, but they've been perfectly happy with such hanging back to deal with their own work while leaving me free to do as I please with my own plans."

"Indeed."

This deep voice came from the ginger haired Wildebeest Society leader, who nodded his head, and folded his arms across his chest. "We already had our own agenda to continue working on, and we had no need for letting an outsider to our work get directly involved any more than necessary. And so, with the exception of allowing him to provide some minor assistance in our efforts at getting Project Baby Wildebeest back under our custody where he belongs once we became aware of him being present in the area, we have all acted largely on our own separate goals."

"Well if that's the case, then why did you choose to assist him as his benefactor?" Cyborg asked.

"We didn't," said the dark-haired Caucasian scientist, his voice with a clear higher pitch compared to his boss. "As far as the Wildebeest Society is concerned, we honestly wouldn't really have cared either way what would have happened to him."

"We already had enough on our plate," said the Latina, a raspy tone in her voice. She nodded her head. "What with all the projects we've currently got going on, the escape of two of our most recent test subjects from our sister location in this country, a bunch of irksome raids against us by some pesky local tribe, and now our newly reinvigorated efforts at recapturing that lost cause passion project everyone in this organization but me seems to view as a ticket to the Promised Land."

"Are you quite done?" The blonde woman asked, annoyance clear in her soft spoken and silky voice and on her face. This earned her a glare from the Latina.

"Regardless," said the Middle Eastern scientist, a gravelly tone to his voice. "We allowed this Cold War leftover permission to take sanctuary here and have access to whatever resources he needed from us due to a favor our glorious leader owed to the man who _did_ choose to serve as his benefactor."

"And who might that be?" Robin asked.

"That would be…me."

The Titans all looked in the direction this new voice had come from and saw a large swivel chair with its back facing them. They also saw a hand and arm lying across the left armrest.

Raven raised her eyebrow. "How long have you been in here?"

"And how did you even get in?" Cyborg asked.

"That need not concern you."

The chair turned around, revealing a surprisingly well-dressed Caucasian man with icy blue eyes and messy coal black hair. He clasped his hands together, intertwining his fingers as he gazed at the four captive Titans, seeming quite content if the look on his face was any indication. "Though I will admit, after everything I've heard in the news about you lot, it is very nice to finally see you in the flesh with my own eyes."

"Charmed," Robin grumbled sarcastically.

Starfire growled, ran up to the barrier, and slammed her now no longer star bolt encased fists against it. "Who are you?!" She snarled. "What do you want with us?!"

"Patience now young lady," the suited man purred. "It will all be explained in good time." He nodded his head. "And considering how it has now ended up taking a tiny bit more time than initially hoped for your friend the shapeshifter to come visit, I might as well make good use of this unexpected extra time. After all, considering how I've already had to wait a large majority of this current decade at the very least since the last time I saw him, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to wait at least one more day despite how much I'm very much looking forward to seeing him again after all this time."

Starfire raised her eyebrow, her earlier rage now replaced with confusion. "All this time?" She stated. "What do you mean?"

"You know him?" Cyborg asked, similarly confused.

"I'd certainly like to believe I know him well enough," the suited man responded coolly, nodding his head in the process. "After all." He looked back at the captured Titans, a toothy grin on his face. "He's my nephew."

**DUN...DUN...DUN!**

**In all seriousness though, yeah, like I said, that end 'twist' was probably seen coming from a mile away. But even so, how could I resist? ^_^ All that said, yeah, hope you all liked what I have to offer with this new chapter and that you leave a decent amount of feedback (remember, an exact minimum of 1 review is required for this chapter before I allow the next completed one to be posted). Enjoy yourselves everyone, and stay safe!**

**Coming up Next: Beast Boy, Wildebeest, and their two feline mutant companions have made it to the village of the tribe Beast Boy used to be friends with during his time living in Upper Lamumba. And from there, not only is a happy reunion made and an eager celebration plotted, but King Tawaba and Beast Boy soon also end up having a very serious chat about Beast Boy's current unpleasant situation...a chat that may or may not have a certain especially dangerous form of Beast Boy's managing to join in as well.**


	13. Welcome Back Friend!

**Hey dudes! Hope you're ready for yet more Teen Titanic awesomeness from me, because here's a new chapter! In this chapter, Beast Boy and his three mutant companions have safely arrived at the village of the tribe Beast Boy used to be acquainted with during his time as a resident of Upper Lamumba. And from there, it isn't long before our favorite is treated to both a joyous reunion and a very serious discussion with King Tawaba...as well as a potentially somewhat unexpectedly helpful conversation with the Beast. How shall this all unfold? Let's find out everyone!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you once again that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. All I own are my OCs Jungle Cat and Ambush and a somewhat unique interpretation of the Beast that I introduce in this chapter. All that said, onward with the fic!**

**Chapter 12:**

**Welcome Back Friend!**

"LET US REJOICE!" King Tawaba roared, an exultant look of happiness on his face as he stood in the center of his village while holding Beast Boy's left arm in the air by the wrist in a seemingly triumphant position. "TODAY WE SHALL CELEBRATE! FOR OUR LOST BROTHER, GARFIELD LOGAN, HAS RETURNED!"

Mumbyo and the rest of the villagers all cheered in unison, their spears, fists, and any other appropriate items they happened to have in their hands raised to the sky in a gesture of triumph. Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat couldn't help but silently whistle from their seated positions a couple feet behind Beast Boy and Tawaba. "And I thought people in America were party animals," Wildebeest whispered to himself.

Tawaba let go of Beast Boy's wrist, lifting up his own staff immediately afterward. "Let us now get to work," he stated. "Long have we planned for this possibility, and now it is of the utmost importance that we do it correctly now that it has indeed become reality! We must hunt down an appropriate animal and gather sufficient fruit for tonight's feast! We must prepare ourselves for the dances and songs we have chosen for this occasion! We must allow ourselves to be ready for when stories are exchanged between us and our lost brother! Our gods have smiled upon us today by allowing Garfield Logan to finally return after countless moons away from our land, and we must not waste this great fortune! Let us all get ready so that we may celebrate this wondrous joy to the point that the birds and the beasts join us in our singing, the trees and flowers blossom in sharing of our joy, and the gods allow the moon and stars tonight to shine so brightly like jewels in the sky that they turn night into day!"

The rest of the tribe cheered exultantly in agreement with their leader before then immediately leaving to get to work on their chosen tasks once Tawaba gave them the appropriate signal to end the gathering. Mumbyo and his sister Nyota were the only ones who remained in the area alongside their father and guests after the rest of the villagers had left. Tawaba nodded his head, and then turned to face Beast Boy. "As much as I've already made it clear to the village, I will say this again," he said to the changeling, pride clear in his voice. "Welcome back Garfield."

Beast Boy chuckled. "It's certainly good to be back," he admitted. "Do wish it could have been under better circumstances though."

"Nonsense," said Tawaba. "It matters not what the circumstances may be. The fact that you have returned at all is joy enough for me."

"If you say so."

The changeling looked in what he hoped was the direction leading to wherever his fellow founding Titans were. "Still wish a couple of especially good friends I've made since last time I was here could have been here with me to meet you right now." He looked sheepishly at Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat. "No offense against you dudes of course."

"None taken," said Wildebeest. The two feline mutants nodded their heads in agreement.

"No big deal," said Nyota. She nodded her head. "I'm sure there will be another chance for you to introduce them to us."

"Indeed," her brother agreed. "And I'm sure that when I do finally meet them, we will all be very happy indeed."

Tawaba and the three mutants all nodded in agreement, happy smiles on their faces. Beast Boy, however, could only chuckle weakly, a half nervous and half sheepish look on his face. "We can certainly hope," he managed to say.

Tawaba and his two children looked straight at Garfield, confused and concerned looks on their faces. Beast Boy mentally facepalmed upon seeing this. Part of him had hoped he wouldn't have to tell them about his current unpleasant condition.

"What do you mean?" Nyota asked.

"Is something wrong?" Mumbyo asked.

"No, nothing," Beast Boy yelped reflexively, extending his hands and shaking them around as if trying desperately to convince his two old childhood friends that he was indeed perfectly fine. "Nothing's wrong. Really don't know what got into me there."

The two siblings only glared at him, a clear 'you're not fooling me' look on both their faces.

"I mean it," Beast Boy stated. "Trust me, everything's fine!"

"No it is not."

The six younger members of the group all turned to face Tawaba, who nodded his head before directing a calm, but firm, look towards the changeling. "I did not notice earlier. But I can see it now. Something is troubling you…more than one thing in fact. And clearly, whatever is that you have concern over is enough to make you greatly fear for your chances of both yourself ever seeing us again after this current visit, and your previously mentioned other friends' chances of ever meeting my tribe and I at all."

Tawaba, his children, and the three mutants all looked intently at Beast Boy, who gulped, and directed a nervous glance at the tribe's chieftain while quivering slightly where he stood. "I have no idea what you're talking about," the changeling managed to state in a weak and half-hearted tone.

Tawaba was already shaking his head in disagreement. "Garfield, it may only be but a few cycles of the moon short of 10 years since the exact date in which I saw you last, but you cannot lie to me." He looked to his children. "Mumbyo, Nyota, you stay here with Garfield's companions. If they have information on this matter that they can and wish to tell you, then it is up to them to do so if you ask them to. But as for me and Garfield, I get the feeling that whatever it is that currently bothers him is something that he and I must discuss alone."

His son and daughter nodded. "Understood father," Nyota stated.

Tawaba nodded, placed his hand comfortingly on Beast Boy's shoulder, and gestured towards a small path that would lead to Tawaba's own hut. "Come my friend," he stated. "Let us retire to my hut. It is clear we have even more to talk about than I thought."

. . . . .

Tawaba sat on the grass mat upon the center of his hut, legs crossed, and hands clasped together as he stared intently at the similarly positioned Beast Boy. "Now," he stated calmly, his eyes not once leaving Beast Boy's face. "Let us talk."

For a brief moment, Beast Boy looked awkwardly at the floor of the hut, uncertain what to say.

Tawaba placed his hand reassuringly on Beast Boy's, and the changeling looked at the chieftain in time to see a warm fatherly look on the man's face. "Garfield," he stated. "I know that I am not your father. But as a good friend of his, I can assure you that I am still just as capable of being trusted and possibly helpful to you in this current situation as he hopefully would have been." He nodded his head. "So please Garfield, do trust me and let me at least have the chance to try to help you with whatever it is that concerns you."

Beast Boy thought to himself, briefly remaining hesitant. Then he sighed and nodded his head in agreement. Tawaba was right. It was nonsensical of him to try to keep his current problems a secret. He steeled himself, taking a deep breath in the process, and then exhaled. "Remember that disease I got that turned me green?"

Tawaba nodded. "It was my understanding that it was no longer an issue."

"Well technically, it still isn't."

"Clarify."

Beast Boy briefly looked behind him, seemingly checking and listening to see if no one was around to watch or listen in. He looked back at Tawaba. "Mumbyo has told me of how you and the rest of the tribe have been engaging in guerilla raids against some unwelcome guests?"

"Ay. Dressed in hooded cloaks held in place by metal wildebeest totems. They have taken refuge in what we believe to be places of science."

"Well if the people you just described are the same people I'm currently thinking of, then here's how I can best describe what's going on."

Beast Boy nodded his head. "In the work I've done alongside the four friends I mentioned earlier, we've encountered some very unpleasant people. And at some point, one of those enemies teamed up with those same people you've been raiding against. And using their resources, he managed to develop a stronger version of that same disease that made me green and allowed me to develop my powers in my parents' efforts to cure me."

Tawaba raised his eyebrow, clearly concerned. "Stronger you say?"

"Yes, and a lot faster acting to. Granted, the part that would have killed me before I got my powers isn't affecting me."

"But the animals inside you," Tawaba gently broke in. "They are feeling the Rage."

"That's an interesting way to put it," Beast Boy's African elephant form mumbled. The other pachyderm morphs mumbled their own agreement. After all, that particular term Tawaba had used to refer to what they and the other animals were currently feeling was what they themselves used to refer to their periods of musth.

Beast Boy nodded his head numbly while ignoring the comments from his pachyderm forms. "Exactly."

"I see." Tawaba nodded his head somberly. "That is very problematic indeed."

"No kidding." The changeling shook his head. "They started feeling it within minutes of getting hit by the gas that triggered it. And they've all since started fighting amongst each other and against me to try to take control; or at least, all except for one form in particular that I honestly thought would have been first in line to try to take over."

"I resent that," the Beast grumbled deep inside his mind.

"And what might that form be?" Tawaba asked, clearly curious.

Beast Boy thought to himself, uncertain how to respond. But then he nodded his head. "I might as well."

He explained to Tawaba about the Beast, the night he'd first taken its form, the exposure to the chemicals that had allegedly granted him that power, the circumstantial frame up and duel against a similarly mutated Adonis, and how the Beast had still continued to remain a part of him even after exposure to an antidote that had undone the worst of the other adverse effects from the chemicals. All while Tawaba silently listened.

"You have had quite an ordeal," Tawaba managed to say once Beast Boy had finished.

"No kidding."

"But now I have an idea that I wish to attempt. Tell me, are you comfortable with spreading the information you have told me to one of the village shamans?"

. . . . .

"Are you really certain that this is the best use of our time right now?"

At the moment, Beast Boy, Tawaba, and one of the village shamans were gathered in a circle around the floor of Tawaba's hut, a small fire set in the center which the shaman was prepared to work with for the sake of what Tawaba now wished to have himself and Beast Boy attempt; directly communicating with the Beast.

"I fail to see why it wouldn't at least be worth trying," Tawaba said patiently. "After all, this ritual we are now about to undergo is usually practiced for the sake of communicating with spirits. And from what you have told me about this Beast inside you, there could yet be a slight chance of this ritual allowing us to properly communicate with it without having to rely on you acting as a middle-man between it and myself."

"But what point would there be in doing that?" Beast Boy asked. "I mean, it's not like he miraculously knows some means of curing Primetia."

"Have you asked him if he knows such information?"

"Not really, but he's not really what I'd consider the type to have idle conversations with at all, let alone on a regular basis. And even if he were, considering just how deep into my mind he can hole up when he's not trying to talk with me, plus the current state that all my other animal forms are in, I'm not exactly in any hurry to allow my consciousness to go any deeper into my mind than absolutely necessary."

"Well if this ritual works as we are currently planning to test," said the shaman, an imposing man named N'jobu. "Then you will have no need to take such a risk. For if we have success with this Beast in the same way we would if using this ritual on a demon or lost soul, then it will have its consciousness projected out into a form where it will at least temporarily be able to talk directly to all three of us."

Beast Boy shook his head, still far from comfortable with the fact that he'd had to let the shaman in on the existence of the Beast. "That still doesn't guarantee he'll be of any help."

"He may know a way to cure you. He may not." Tawaba nodded his head. "But if our plan succeeds, then we'll at least potentially be able to figure out for sure. And even if he doesn't know of a way to completely cure you, he could yet be able to tell us information that could perhaps allow us to figure out a way to allow you enough time to guarantee that a potential cure will actually work."

Beast Boy sighed. He really didn't feel confident that the Beast would necessarily be of any help even if the ritual they were about to partake in actually worked. But clearly, Tawaba and the shaman had their minds made up. "If you say so."

N'jobu nodded his head, drawing out the materials needed for the ritual. Amongst the objects were four dark black crystals, which the shaman placed in compass point positions around the fire. The rest were all herbs, which he raised upwards towards the ceiling of the hut. "Fungua lango la roho."

He cast the herbs into the fire. Within seconds, with a puff of smoke, the fire turned purple and an orb of similarly colored light started to materialize above the flames. The shaman started chanting and beating his hands upon a pair of tribal drums. "Njoo kwetu roho, sema na sisi roho," he stated repeatedly, all while the orb of purple light continued to gradually materialize and become increasingly more corporeal and easier to see.

Beast Boy, despite his continued misgivings, listened and watched, completely intrigued at both the purple light sphere and flames as well as the sound of the N'jobu's chanting. At the sound of a slight cough from Tawaba, the shapeshifter looked to the chieftain, who nodded his head. He lifted his hands. "Prepare yourself," Tawaba stated. "When the time is right, you will need to place both your hands within the gate."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow in confusion. "You mean the ball of light?"

Tawaba nodded his head. "Soon," he stated. "Remember, both hands will need to be placed in the light when I give you the signal."

Beast Boy gulped, nodded his head, and watched and listened carefully as the orb of light continued to seemingly solidify and turn brighter in color in perfect synch with the continued chanting of the shaman. After about another minute, the orb of light started glowing especially bright in color, and seemingly start to turn from purple to white. The instant the sphere had completely turned a blinding white, Tawaba yelled, "NOW!"

The changeling reflexively snapped his arms forward, allowing both of his hands to enter the sphere of light. And with a blinding harmless flash of light, the flames turned back to an ordinary orange color and lessened in intensity while the light sphere turned translucent and revealed his hands firmly positioned within as bursts of red and green lightning started crackling around them. He looked to Tawaba, who shook his head and made a hand gesture that indicated for him to wait. N'jobu continued chanting, and after what felt like an hour, Beast Boy noticed what appeared to be a ring of white light forming around his upper arms before then slowly slithering down the length of his arms and enter the sphere alongside his hands. No sooner had these rings come to a stop at the exact same position as his hands, they merged together to form a small sphere that started to gradually increase, the red and green lightning tendrils encasing it and seemingly fueling its increase in size. It was at this point that Tawaba indicated for Beast Boy to withdraw his hands from the sphere, a request that Beast Boy quickly obliged.

Soon after withdrawing his hands, the shapeshifter noticed the smaller sphere rapidly increase to fully fill up the original sphere, at which another flash of white light went off. When this second flash of light faded away, the original translucent sphere was now revealed to have turned a hideous boiling red while four small bolts of red lightning burst out of its sides and got absorbed into the four crystals. As Tawaba and the changeling watched, and N'jobu dutifully continued his chanting and drum beating, the sphere and lightning slowly turned from the hideous boiling red to a calm and soothing forest green. When the four lightning bolts finally started showing signs of growing weaker and fizzling out, the shaman stopped chanting, removed his hands from his drums, and clasped them together once as if trying to initiate a thunderclap. Beast Boy couldn't help but gulp and gape in both awe and nerves. What was going to happen now?

"Tunakukaribisha wewe roho hodari," N'jobu stated, his eyes and face illuminated by the light of the sphere. "Wacha sasa tuongee."

What appeared to be a large pair of disembodied yellow cat-like eyes materialized within the sphere, slowly opening before coming to a stop fully opened and staring straight at the shaman. A few seconds of silence passed, and then the eyes moved as if an invisible creature attached to them was nodding its head. "I greet you," spoke a voice that Beast Boy instantly recognized as that of the Beast.

The shapeshifter, despite himself, let out a slight whistle. "I can't believe it," he thought to himself. "It actually worked."

"Indeed it did." The eyes in the sphere turned to face Beast Boy, an amused look in them. "I may not truly be a spirit in the conventional sense of the term, but I'm still just close enough to take part in several activities that would be expected of one."

The Beast's eyes turned once more to face N'jobu. "And from what I was able to overhear in your words prior to my summoning, it is clear that there are questions that you all have that you hope I will have the answers to."

"That is correct," the shaman confirmed, nodding his head.

"Very well. Let us begin." The Beast directed a side glance towards Beast Boy. "After all, I have a strong feeling that some of the questions are things that my host would have done well to ask me about a good long while ago."

The shapeshifter glared at the sphere containing the Beast's conscience, but wisely stayed silent.

N'jobu gazed at Tawaba, who nodded his head. "Great Beast," the chieftain king said, a firm but not unkind tone to his voice as he stared unfalteringly straight at the sphere containing the Beast's eyes and consciousness. "You no doubt have no need for me to explain the current state of your host and of all the lesser animals that you share living space with."

"IMPUDENCE!" Beast Boy's lion form roared.

"HERESY!" Trumpeted the African elephant form.

"HOW DARE HE DISMISS US SO?!" Whinnied his horse form.

Many of the other strong and prideful forms in Beast Boy's repertoire similarly reacted, but Beast Boy managed with all the willpower he had to keep them under control.

"Correct," said the Beast.

"Yet we are all curious," Tawaba stated. "For all the fury and passion you put in your attacks and willingness to protect and defend your host's sorceress friend, you yourself appear completely calm and entirely unaffected by the Rage that even now consumes all the other animals living alongside you in your host's mind as per the foul virus that even now dares to slink and slither along within him. Tell me, if I may ask, how this is possible?"

For what seemed to be an impossibly long five seconds, silence hung in the air. But then the Beast nodded. "I suppose there's no harm." He directed another side glance at his host. "After all, anything that can benefit my host could yet automatically benefit myself and my lesser animal brethren as well."

The other animals in Beast Boy's morph repertoire hissed, snarled, and likewise showed irritation at being referred to once again as 'lesser', but Beast Boy kept them once again in check.

"Let's hear it then," Beast Boy stated, now feeling very much willing to hear what the Beast had to say now that it appeared clear it could indeed perhaps be of assistance.

"That's the spirit." The Beast made sure that it had the attention of all three of the humans currently speaking to it. "To start, in order for any of you to have a fully appreciative and complete understanding of what this virus does, it is also necessary to fill in some blanks on the nature of myself and of the powers my host has that allow him to take my form and have my consciousness in his mind."

The Beast directed its gaze straight at N'jobu. "To start, at the time of creation, there came into existence multiple mystical forces of nature that would later become tied to the existence of various different elements. But out of all these elemental forces, two in particular would become essential to the existence of life forms."

Beast Boy silently whistled upon hearing this. He had to admit, what the Beast was now describing certainly sounded like intriguing information to know.

"And what might those two forces be?" N'jobu asked.

"One of these two forces," the Beast patiently responded. "Known simply as the Green, was what the Creators channeled for the sake of creating plants. The other, known simply as the Red, was similarly channeled by the Creators for the sake of bringing about the existence of animals. And once the Creators had finished creating all the animals and plants they could think of and wished to be in existence, the one high ranking Divine One amongst them that every Divine One has always answered to since subsequently worked to ensure that those same mystical forces would be forever linked to the respective life forms that they had been channeled for the sake of being allowed to exist. And when this happened, both the Green and the Red received corporeal forms that were designed to serve as avatars that would forever anchor them into existence. And while the avatar of the Green would, appropriately enough, take the form of a large tree, the avatar of the Red…"

The Beast turned to directly face its host. "I believe you could perhaps correctly guess what form it was given?"

"The shape I take when I turn into you," Beast Boy stated, eyes widened as all the pieces seemed to abruptly click together in his mind. "That's the form given to the avatar of the Red!"

"Exactly."

The Beast nodded. "Formed by means of the supreme Divine One extracting a sample of essence each from literally every single animal He helped bring into existence and combining them together, the avatar of the Red was designed to be the ultimate animal, the one that would rule all other animals, complete with having the strongest and most complete access and control over the Red that a lifeform could possibly have without being completely taken over by it. But while both the avatar itself and its offspring live exclusively within metaphysical dimensions outside the realm of mortal life, it has not proven incapable of allowing a version of itself to exist within the realm of mortal life."

"Please clarify," said Tawaba.

Much to Beast Boy's surprise, the Beast nodded in acceptance before then turning to face Tawaba. "As you may or may not have perhaps guessed, any human beings that possess special abilities related to animals naturally end up acquiring a connection to the Red." The Beast looked back at Beast Boy. "And yes, that includes you."

Beast Boy gulped. "Are you saying that's how I got my powers?"

"No. The powers themselves aren't provided by the connection to the Red. The powers being animal related merely allow for the wielders themselves to inherit an animal's natural connection. Though admittedly, your own connection did help advance your powers far beyond the level that they would have otherwise been."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That can be discussed later. For right now, it's high time I at least get to properly answering the original question."

The Beast looked to Tawaba. "Why I am seemingly unaffected by the virus that's driving all the other animals my host can transform into mindless rage? To answer that question, there is one crucial detail about the virus it was derived from. The mindless rage that both viruses cause in animal victims? That is partially the result of their connection to the Red becoming intensified to stronger levels then their minds are capable of handling. The virus that my host's current affliction derives from was born from an unexplained mixture of energy from both the Red and the Green. The energy from the Green is what allows for them to take on the titular color, whereas the energy from the Red merges with the animals' preexisting connections with that force and intensifies it to the point that the Red fully takes over their minds and reduces them to mindless monsters."

"So you're saying that the effects of this virus are entirely a result of magic?" N'jobu asked.

"No. The mystical side I've just explained merely coincides with symptoms more closely related to the realm of science. But regardless, since I myself am designed to be an avatar of the Red, I naturally have the highest resistance to both Sakutia and the more enhanced version of it known as Primetia."

The Beast returned its gaze to Beast Boy. "But be warned. Not even I am completely immune to the effects of either virus. And in the event that I successfully lose my own mind to the Rage…well simply put, in the event that there is a cure for Primetia, then even it won't be able to save you."

"So you don't know of any way to potentially cure me?"

"I'm afraid not. My knowledge and intelligence might be considerably heightened compared to most other animals, but as far as your current situation is concerned, the mystical side of it is the only side of which I have sufficient knowledge, and the side that needs to be manipulated for the sake of curing this virus is not a side that I can explain in terms that would make sense to the standards of a human. And even if I could properly explain those particular matters in a way you'd understand, I do not have any more knowledge of a cure for this condition than any other lesser animal would have. If there is in fact a cure for your current condition, than you will have to find it through another source; for the best I can do is to keep myself and all the other animals in your mind under control for as long as I can possibly manage. And even I can't make any promises on exactly how much time I'll be able to allow for you to have before all chances of a cure having any effect are lost."

The eyes very briefly started to flicker within the sphere, and the sound of various animal vocalizations split the air around where the ritual was occurring. "Time is running short," the Beast stated once its presence within the sphere had fully reasserted itself. "If there is anything else that you or my host wish to ask me about the current situation or anything else related to it, then I can try to at least be available for my host to speak directly to me without anyone else being able to hear us. But as it currently stands, I must return to my host's mind. For if I am not directly present to keep the other morphs in line within the next few minutes, my host's already limited time will only become even more so. Farewell."

The Beast's eyes vanished from the sphere, which turned translucent once more before then similarly fading out of existence. And just like that, Tawaba, N'jobu, and Beast Boy were the only ones remaining within the hut.

Beast Boy thought to himself, carefully considering everything he'd just learned from the recent conversation with the Beast. "I'll admit, I'm not entirely certain just how helpful the information we've just learned actually is."

"Regardless," Tawaba stated, "we at least have some slight idea now of just what where dealing with."

"Indeed." N'jobu looked to Beast Boy. "And furthermore, if there is in fact a cure, and the professor responsible for creating this new virus that currently ails you has in fact created it and has it available, then the four friends you say are currently at work in going after him could yet get ahold of it and have it brought to you within the near future."

"Agreed." Tawaba got back up on his feet. "But for now, let us enjoy ourselves while we still can in the time that we have before potentially receiving any further news on such matters. Let us prepare for tonight's celebration."

At this point, Beast Boy saw precious little reason to argue with Tawaba's decision.

**And just like that, another chapter done! Hope you all enjoyed and leave plenty of feedback (remember, an exact minimum of one review must be received by this chapter in order for me to allow you the chance to read the next completed chapter). I especially hope you enjoyed getting to meet Tawaba and have good things to say about the information I've chosen to reveal regarding some recent developments I've chosen to allow for how I interpret the nature of the Beast's existence (particularly since there are other details regarding it, the Red, and their connections to Beast Boy's powers that I am hoping to reveal in a later chapter or so if at all possible). All that in mind, once again, hope you read, review, and enjoy! And stay safe everyone!**

**Coming up Next: Back at the Wildebeest Society lab, we all finally learn the full story behind just what it that Chang and his benefactor have planned for Beast Boy and the Primetia virus.**


	14. Galtry

**Hey everyone! Hope you all had a happy Memorial Day and are looking forward to more Teen Titanic awesomeness from me, because here's a new chapter! In this latest addition, we cut back to Galtry and the captive Titans at the Wildebeest Society main lab in time for our favorite shapeshifter's villainous uncle to provide some much needed exposition on just ****_what_**** the overall plan is regarding Primetia, Beast Boy, and how they all connect together. Hope you read, review, and enjoy (not to mention stay safe)!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you all that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. There are also a couple details of Galtry's motives in this story where I'd like to rightfully give credit to Metroxlr99 for the inspiration he managed to provide me via his story The Lonely Beast. Furthermore, on another quick note, a couple things I'd best go ahead and say to guest reviewer Eris:**

**A: Your questions in the review for the previous chapter - Fear not, a bunch of these are planned to have answers revealed in a later chapter or so within this story. That being said, I'll go ahead and answer your questions here that aren't guaranteed to get explicit answers within the narrative itself. For starters, to answer your question about just how the creators' process of creating the plants and animals worked, it's more of a case of your latter guess (aka. they created all the plants and animals they could think of and had them all live in the same metaphysical dimension as the avatars of the Red and Green (which just so happens to be Eden) while evolution and other natural selection processes and similar whatnot decide which ones came into existence outside Eden at specific times, places, and circumstances). The offspring of the avatar of the Red are all younger versions of itself that it conceived with help from a female version of itself that had a slightly less pronounced control over the Red, and (as per my personal interpretation) they all serve as 'border patrol' for Purgatory (in which they're designed to prevent attempted escapes by Purgatorial souls or Primordials (if you are confused as to what 'Primordials are, you'll find more information about them in my story Night of the Cursed, which takes place in the same 'canon' as Tropic Thunder). Furthermore, the creators are all the god/gods/goddesses of all the religions of Earth and other planets (which, for the sake of my interpretation of how the DC universe would work best, use to work in relative unity at the beginning of existence and the creation period before eventually splitting off and largely keeping to their own metaphysical/religious boundaries similarly to the way they do in the Rick Riordan books about Percy Jackson and whatnot as more time went by after the end of the days of creation. And of course, the one especially high ranking divine one that all the others have since answered to is naturally capital g GOD of the Abrahamic religions. And on another note, remember how you asked me in your review of chapter 8 if I could write a little more about that bit involving Terra being that 'mystery girl' at Murakami High? I actually DID do that all the way back in my story Geo-Force, which is also in the same 'canon' as Tropic Thunder. In fact, if you haven't already, I HIGHLY (and I mean ****_HIGHLY_****) recommend you read and review Night of the Cursed, Geo-Force, Shadows of Love, Black Star, and The Enemy Below (in that exact order if at all possible; and you can also feel free to read Reflections in Ice in between your reading of Black Star and The Enemy Below if you wish). Seriously, I'm sure you'll like reading those since prior reading of those could help provide some much needed extra context to help you better understand and appreciate certain events and aspects of this story as well as the ones I plan to write after this one.**

**Anyway. All that out of the way, onward with the fic dudes!**

**Chapter 13:**

**Galtry**

One could have heard a pin drop without needing Beast Boy's enhanced sense of hearing in the silence that filled the air after the mysterious benefactor's recent statement.

"NEPHEW?!" Cyborg bellowed, his human eye widened and cybernetic eye glowing blindingly bright in stunned shock. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S YOUR NEPHEW?!"

The benefactor raised his eyebrow, a clearly amused look on his face. "I'd like to believe the meaning's quite obvious." He nodded his head. "Though in all fairness, I suppose it wouldn't be surprising that you weren't aware of my existence. After all, the little twerp and I weren't exactly on the best of terms the last time we saw each other…to put it lightly."

Raven promptly rolled her eyes, while privately feeling her heart sink. "Dare I ask why?"

"Whether you ask or not, I have every intention of giving you a nice little rundown. After all, the answer to that particular question is somewhat related to my current plans. But first."

The man looked to Chang, his eyebrow raised as if asking a silent question. The professor nodded his head as if in confirmation. The Titans were unsure of just what it was the benefactor was trying to ask Chang about. But if the unnervingly gleeful wolf-like grin that came on the face of the blue cloaked Latina Wildebeest Society scientist was any indication, they had a feeling they would not like finding out.

Satisfied, the benefactor looked back at the Titans, smile now on his face once more. "My name," he began. "Is Nicholas Galtry." He nodded his head. It seemed he really liked the sound of his own name. Then he looked back at the captive Titans. "The story I'm about to tell you, however, arguably spends a majority of its runtime centered around my brother Mark." He clenched his fists. "In a way, it's kind of funny. I was the older of the two, yet Mark always seemed to overshadow me in all but the most literal of senses. He was popular enough in school to avoid getting picked on by my brethren amongst that group, all despite being a nerd. All because of his sheer intelligence. It was even enough to convince one of the cheerleaders to embrace her hidden nerd side. And what do you know, she ended up both dating him and becoming his wife after college. And they ended up having a son…whom you four know quite well."

"Tell us something we don't know," Robin grumbled.

Galtry raised his eyebrow in slight amusement. "Very well, I shall." He folded his arms across his chest. "Even when he and I were kids, Mark considered himself a real fan and scholar of animals and nature; something I've found quite ironic over the years since due to how he seemed to constantly upend the natural order of things when it comes to how his life unfolded compared to mine. Overshadowed and surpassed me despite my being the eldest, outranked me in popularity at school despite him being a nerd while I myself was a jock, managing to not only date and later marry a cheerleader that was amongst our fellow students our age despite aforementioned social status, etc. And by sheer rotten luck, out of all the girls either of us could have picked, he ended up with Marie Logan, the one girl that I myself had wanted."

He shook his head side to side. "Even our own parents seemed fully convinced that he was something special destined for nothing but the best in life. And annoyingly enough, they were not far off. For even without how insanely lucky he turned out to be while we were still in school, he and Marie later moved on to make quite a life for themselves after college. They became master class geneticists, commonly getting inspiration for their work from elements of nature, but especially from animals. And with their work, they managed to amass millions worth of money while I myself found myself constantly drifting to another job every other week and just barely ever having enough money to even pay rent."

Cyborg snorted. "Well boo freaking hoo for you."

Galtry glared at the half robot. "Consider yourself lucky I don't consider the idea of going into that cell and trying to kill you for that worth the trouble of risking you and your friends managing to successfully escape." He shook his head side to side, rolling his eyes and sighing heavily in annoyance. "But regardless, I'll freely admit; Mark wasn't intentionally trying to surpass me and leave me with a miserable life in his wake. Not at all. Quite honestly, it would have surprisingly easier for me at times if he _had_. But that was my brother for you. He and Marie were both such bleeding hearts, always trying to help any human or animal in need whenever they could, and quite simply too kind for their own good. Mark even proved willing to lend me a small portion of his money every now and then, even if only just enough to keep me afloat for 2 or 3 months at best. And if that's not proof enough, just look at the last project they actively worked on before their deaths."

At this point, he clenched his right fist and lifted it towards his face, now grinning gleefully like a wolf. "I may not have been granted knowledge of the full details until long after the fact, but even before I got the full picture, I had a basic idea of just what they were working on. A revolutionary serum. An ingenious genetic mixture of animal DNA that, if they'd just had the vision and conviction of mind to sell it as much, they could have easily sold as the next greatest weapon after nuclear technology that mankind had ever invented. But no, instead, they took the medicinal angle. And crazily enough, that's exactly what the serum ultimately ended up becoming; an unconventional one-time usage medicine used as an improvised virus antidote that they'd been forced to resort to in an act of pure desperation despite it not even being fully complete in the way they'd initially been planning for it to be. And as per their usual bleeding-heart nature, they used it on a sick child."

Galtry chose that moment to allow a brief pause to enter his narrative, allowing the Titans just enough time to allow the full obvious implication to settle in. And of course, the four captives did not take long at all to connect the dots.

"Beast Boy," Robin thought to himself.

"It all makes sense now," Cyborg thought to himself.

"By X'hal," Starfire thought to herself.

"We have _got_ to talk to Beast Boy about this," Raven thought to herself. "He deserves the right to give full confirmation with his own side of the story."

"That act alone would not automatically have made things difficult for me later," Galtry eventually continued. "But unfortunately, I wasn't kidding when I said it was a one-use deal. They understandably had to use up the entire serum for the sake of their efforts at curing their precious little boy. And before they had a chance to even get started on making another, they were killed in a completely unrelated accident within weeks after curing him. And not too long after that, I ended up having to become the little rascal's legal guardian. And if you haven't already guessed, it was at this point that things started to get a bit…crazy."

Raven clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes. "What. Did. You. Do?" Her three fellow captives briefly directed a half surprised and half nervous look towards their sorceress friend before then returning their gazes to Galtry. The man himself appeared mildly amused by the sight of the murderous look on the half demoness's face, but nonetheless continued his story as if there were nothing out of the ordinary going on.

"I'll make it simple. The short version? My nephew currently has access to two things that I want. But the long version? Well to start, the first of those things? Money."

With a nod of his head, he rose from his chair, placed his hands in his pants pockets, and started casually wandering down the stairs near the seat and towards the Titans' holding cell. "For you see, over the course of the procedures I had to go through, I was naturally made aware of my brother's will. And in the process, I became aware of the fact that my brother had set aside a sizable fortune as inheritance in the event of his death."

Robin couldn't help but let out a brief chuckle. Already he could see exactly where the conversation was now going. "I suppose this is the part where you tell us that you wanted that fortune for yourself."

"You kidding? The amount of money my brother left in that fortune was something I would have been willing to kill for even if I hadn't already taken on a life of crime in the time leading up to his death, and I do mean that quite literally. But as per my rotten luck, there was one very irksome obstacle in the way of my being allowed to have it…my own nephew. And what's worse, the bank wouldn't even give it to _him_ until he turned 18. And with patience hardly being one of my strongest virtues, I naturally made attempts to have things changed so that I'd be first in line instead."

"In other words, you tried to kill him," said Robin in a matter of fact tone.

Galtry glared at the boy wonder. "A rather ugly way to phrase it, but nonetheless correct." He shook his head. "But as is no doubt obvious, I failed. However, in the process, I managed to discover that the little blighter actually had the potential to be considerably more useful to me than I initially thought."

He allowed his earlier wolf-like grin to return. "And now is where I explain the other thing he has that I want, and the one that not only proved reason enough for me to put my efforts at directly obtaining my brother's fortune on hold, but to this day remains the sole reason that I'm still continuing to willingly delay such efforts. What is that thing you might ask? Simple. Power. Or more precisely, a very specific _type_ of power."

Starfire raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean?" She asked.

Galtry had just turned to face the alien, mouth open as if he were about to respond.

"Don't even bother."

Galtry and the other captive Titans all looked to Raven, who nodded her head, a cold look in her eyes. "You're talking about the powers he got from that serum? Aren't you?"

"Precisely." Galtry nodded his head, clearly looking impressed at Raven's managing to figure it out so quickly. "Like I said earlier; that serum my brother was working on could have been mankind's next great superweapon. And upon realizing that my nephew now granted me the opportunity to properly make this idea a reality and bring it to its full potential, it was quite obvious that it would be far wiser to let him live than to waste such a good opportunity by killing him off for money that I could yet have ended up easily achieving through different means by using him for my business. And in all fairness, the new arrangement we subsequently set up did manage to work out nicely enough for a short while."

Soon after Galtry said this, he narrowed his eyes and allowed a firm glare to come on his face. "But over time, he gradually became more and more difficult to work with. And eventually, it reached the point that the new arrangement was now quite simply far too counterproductive to allow to continue. And since I now couldn't reliably make use of that power directly through my nephew himself, I chose to pursue the next best option."

"In other words," Cyborg began. "You chose to try to obtain his powers yourself."

"EXACTLY!"

Galtry nodded his head. "But as you can probably guess, even this turned out to be a task far easier said than done. For starters, from what little knowledge I _did_ have of the serum and how it had affected Craig, I knew that there was a very specific…"

"Craig?"

Galtry directed an annoyed glare at Starfire, who now looked quite confused. "Who's Craig?"

The other captive Titans likewise looked somewhat confused. And for a brief moment, even Galtry himself was thrown for a loop, though more over Starfire's question then over the sudden random name he'd dropped. But then he made a silent 'oh' and nodded his head in understanding as he realized exactly what was going on. "Oh yes, that's right. I forgot to mention that I liked to call him Craig. After all, if he was going to live in my house, he needed to have a nice manly name truly worthy of someone that would dare to actively be associated with me." He briefly let an amused sneer come on his face. "I mean, of all the names my brother and Marie could have given him, and they chose to name him after that ridiculous cat from that old newspaper comic?" He snorted. "Please, give me a break."

Raven clenched her fists, a look of such fury on her face that the ring of runes that were nullifying her powers were the only things keeping her from going full demon and reducing Galtry to a puddle of guts and blood. Robin and Cyborg similarly clenched their fists and glared at Galtry. Even Starfire now had a look on her face that made it clear how much she was now fighting not to give into the urge to futilely attempt to fire her eye beams or a jet of star bolt energy at full power Galtry's way.

"But never mind that. As I was saying, there was a very specific genetic material; an animorph mutagen if you will; that Craig now had in his system thanks to the serum and his new powers that I would somehow need to acquire in order to obtain those same powers myself. In fact, if I'd already had access to the information I'd need to do so, then I could have still done away with him even after my epiphany regarding his powers. But luckily for him, all the data that my brother and Marie had recorded involving it for the sake of the serum had been conveniently destroyed in an accident that occurred within the same timeframe as their deaths, and it would have taken far more time than I had the patience for trying to figure it all out on my own devices completely from scratch, not to mention would have also required use of tools and knowledge that I quite simply didn't have readily available."

He briefly paused in his speech as he took a look at all the machinery within the room, an approving look on his face. "Fortunately for me, there were some scientists I knew who proved more than willing to try to assist me in getting it all figured out from there. And while the little blighter admittedly proved far less helpful over the course of those efforts than I would have liked, the scientists and I were making decent progress. But then it all came to a crashing halt when he somehow managed to escape before we could collect all the data we needed."

At this point, he raised his right hand, now clenched into a fist. A firm pokerfaced glare was now on his face. "I don't know the exact details of everything that has since happened in between his escape and this current moment. But quite frankly, neither do I care. Right now, all that matters is that, as long as everything continues to go according to plan, I now have the opportunity to finally obtain both of those things he has that I want in one fell swoop. And even better, now is the point where I finally tell you _exactly_ how I plan to do as much."

At the sound of the doors to the room opening, all the occupants looked in the direction of the noise in time to see none other than Chang's two underlings from earlier finally return from their earlier errand, one of them holding a tightly sealed test tube each in his gloved hands while the other held what appeared to be a miniature safe. The test tube contained a very unnerving looking virulent green liquid. The Titans' eyes instantly widened.

"YO!" Cyborg yelled, already pointing his finger towards the test tubes. "Is that…?!"

"It is indeed Primetia," Galtry responded, a triumphant grin on his face.

"And these aren't the only samples of it we have either."

Galtry and the Titans all looked to Professor Chang, who was nodding his head confidently. "There's another 101 samples in the same area my boys here have just gotten back from. And believe you me, as long as my benefactor Mr. Galtry wishes it, there will be plenty more from where all those, plus the two you now see, have come from."

The Titans blanched. As much as they'd already expected for big plans to be in motion involving this virus, it was nonetheless shocking to them just how big of a supply had already been made. "This is bad," they all thought to themselves in unison.

"And that in mind, let's get back to business."

All the occupants once again returned their attention to Galtry, who nodded his head and then looked right back at the Titans before resuming his earlier talk. "To start, it's high time you found out just why I bothered to have Primetia created in the first place. First and foremost, it's bait. For as you can probably guess, with all the difficulty I was having finding and reaching my nephew after his escape, it became clear to me that I would need to somehow get him to come to me if I were to have any chance of getting the things he had that I wanted. And after many years of no luck, plus several months of laying low after ending a then recent jail term, some associates of mine from my criminal activities informed me over the grapevine of a potential new business deal for us to take that would perhaps allow us to properly make a comeback."

He gestured towards the two test tubes. "Specifically, there was a terrorist organization in Bialya that was offering big bucks for anyone who could potentially produce some sort of unique superweapon they could use in a hopeful future attempt at getting Qurac back under their queen's rule, but could also be easily transported in vast quantities as swiftly and comparatively inconspicuously as possible. And from there, I realized the perfect way to lure Craig back into my reach. For you see, while hardly an expert on any sort of warfare, I had a good feeling that weapons related to biological warfare would probably have the best chance of fulfilling the requirements that the Bialyan terrorists had asked for. And from there, I realized that, considering his own past experiences, what better reason for him to come to me then the chance for him to prevent countless others from suffering just as much, if not more so, as he himself did from a genetically enhanced stronger version of the exact same virus that he himself had been infected with all those years prior when he got his powers?"

"So that's why you chose to use Sakutia as the base," Robin stated.

"Indeed that was one of the reasons. But even though I now had the idea for the bait, there were still a couple things I still needed to actually acquire it. To start, I needed a sufficient group of scientists smart enough to continue and finish what my previous scientist associates had started. But fortunately, after about a good while or so of searching, I managed to find just the right person."

"And that is where I enter into the equation."

The Titans all looked to Chang, who nodded his head. "He found my boys and I at what couldn't have been a more perfect time. After how much time we'd spent desperately trying to stay under the radar and avoid the authorities after our escape from the Brotherhood's fortress, it seemed like a dream come true when Galtry managed to come to us and offer for us to provide him with our services in exchange for what we would need to achieve the more long term permanent escape and safe haven we wished to obtain. Granted, I did approach the idea with a decent amount of caution considering what had happened the times I offered my services to the H.I.V.E. and the Brotherhood of Evil. But once I realized just how much money he was willing to offer for me and my boys, well I quite simply would have had to be especially stupid to turn the offer down at that point."

"So basically you're in this for the money," said Robin.

"You should never underestimate the power of money," Galtry stated. He nodded his head. "Pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell." He looked back at the Titans. "And in any case, it was all the motivation Chang needed to work for me. And at that point, all we needed in order to really get things rolling was an appropriate stronghold where we could do the necessary research and experimentation. And as it so happened, I had done business with the Wildebeest Society once or twice in the past. As a result, I was able to cash in on a favor that the leader owed me for those services by being granted permission to have myself and my new employees make use of one of the facilities they had here in Lamumba. This very building to be more specific. And thus, now that I had all the workers and material I needed, we were free to get straight to work from there. And while it did admittedly take quite a lot of hard work and a sizable amount of time, we were able to make some very good progress indeed once Chang had both gotten a sufficient number of Sakutia samples and subsequently gotten just the right formula we'd need for Primetia figured out. And now, as of this moment, we're all set in that regard."

Chang nodded his head in agreement. "Indeed we are. All that needs to be done now is for my benefactor here to take care of the last few things he needs to do for his own interests, and then he'll have all the time he needs to inform the Bialyan terrorists of Primetia being successfully created and ready. And from there, all the money he receives from the subsequent sale will be passed onto me so that I can use it to get myself and my men to just the place we have in mind for our new permanent safe haven."

"Well whoop-di-do for you," Cyborg grumbled.

"That still doesn't explain how you plan to get what you want from friend Beast Boy," Starfire pointed out.

"Ah, now here's where I start to _really_ get into the meat of the matter." Galtry intertwined his fingers together and stretched his hands and arms outward. "Granted, even with how much I was hoping for you to gain some degree of awareness of our presence here without my having to resort to the backup plan of directly announcing it to you, you did manage to arrive here in Upper Lamumba somewhat earlier than I was expecting. But fortunately, we'd been able to multitask long before your arrival. And as a result, we already had quite a few things that I required for my plans either completely set up, or without too much work remaining to become as much even before whenever your friend that used to be one of the Wildebeest Society's chief experiments presumably arrived ahead of you."

"I'm guessing this is the part where you tell us why you went to so much trouble to get your nephew infected with Primetia," said Robin.

"Correct. And to start, I should probably first let you know just how we managed to become aware of your arrival in Lamumba in the first place."

Galtry drew out a very familiar looking damaged collar. "I take it you remember seeing something like this on the necks of those 7 young unusual local felines? Or on the neck of that quite explosively tempered rhino-like creature that escorted you here? There are specially designed cameras built into them. And through watching the footage recorded, we naturally became aware of you finally being present, plus the fact that your friend amongst the Wildebeest Society's old projects had managed to at some point arrive here before you. And needless to say, I felt very lucky indeed that we'd managed to successfully set up the trap needed to get Craig infected the day before the one I presume to be your arrival date."

Galtry placed the collar down on a nearby countertop. "Granted, you very nearly managed to throw a wrench into the whole plan when you managed to both destroy the radio interference tower without your green friend successfully getting within the appropriate vicinity around it beforehand _and_ subsequently remove the collars from the 7 juvenile security cats while still at a safe distance over the course of our efforts at having them herd you into range. But fortunately for me, a wild adult version of those very same cats managed by sheer chance to come into the picture and finish their job for them."

"You've certainly got that right," Raven snarled as she remembered how the adult nundu had indeed managed to get Beast Boy thrown into the aforementioned trap.

"But that still doesn't explain why you were so keen on getting Beast Boy trapped," said Starfire.

"Yeah man," said Cyborg. "If you were really that keen on testing Primetia for those terrorists, why deliberately target someone that wouldn't be affected the way they would have wanted it to affect their victims?"

"Because not only was he the only one most likely to have guaranteed immunity to the effects that the Bialyan terrorists would have desired, but also because, as a direct result of said immunity, I'd have the perfect means at my disposal to finally obtain the last of the data I needed before he even arrived here at this lab."

The captive Titans stared blankly at Galtry in confusion. "Ok…?" Robin asked.

"How exactly?" Cyborg asked.

"I knew you would ask something like this, which is why I specifically made sure to already have the answer ready."

Galtry gestured towards the Primetia test tube. "For as I shall soon explain, Primetia wasn't the only thing that I had our mutual acquaintance Professor Chang create for me. To start, that one sample that was in the trap that infected Craig? There was a very ingenious swarm of nanobots placed inside."

The captive Titans' eyes widened.

"YO!" Cyborg yelled. "That's impossible! I would have noticed them on my scanners when I…"

"Come now," said Chang, a smug look on his wizened face. "You should know better than that." He nodded his head. "Considering how I worked with some technology very similar to the kind that you yourself utilize when I worked with Brother Blood, it would only be natural that I would have the information I need to know how to design technology that could evade detection by your scanners."

Robin and the girls looked to Cyborg, who winced, mentally facepalming as he realized the truth in Chang's statement.

Galtry chuckled. "Nevertheless, the nanotechnology worked like a charm once it had gotten into Craig's system alongside the virus. For you see, I'd always made sure to keep a copy of the data I'd gained during my previous efforts at figuring out the formula for the animorph mutagen saved and available for me to use. And so, with Chang's help, the nanobots designed to be placed within the Primetia sample that has now infected Craig were also designed to actively seek out the genetic match to the data I had available on the formula, harmlessly mark it, and simultaneously record all the data needed to fill in the blanks that remained. These same nanobots are also designed to harmlessly leave his system within a week or so after their implanting. Of course, he'll be dead long before that point, but the point right now is that, by midnight tonight, the probes should have their work complete and allow me access to the full formula for the animorph mutagen. And from there, all that remains is for me to get a sufficient sample of it extracted from him and transfused into my own bloodstream."

"And that is where _this_ extra special machine comes into play."

Chang gestured towards the same countertop where the broken mind control collar was located, allowing the Titans to get a glimpse of a very unnerving looking gun-like device that appeared to have a syringe-like device attached to a retractable grappling hook style harness that was attached to the barrel. "He had me design this over the course of all our hard work," Chang explained. "I call it the gene extractor. All you have to do is enter in the data for a specific genetic sequence, like a mutagen for example. And then, once you fire the syringe into the appropriate target, it is designed to automatically target and extract a blood sample containing the desired genetic sequence."

"Exactly." Galtry nodded his head. "And just like that, all I'll need to do is use this on Craig once I have the complete data for the animorph mutagen entered in and then I'll have just the sample I need to inject into myself. And as long as nothing goes wrong from there and I survive the subsequent mutation, I will finally have the power of the animorph mutagen at my disposal. And with that goal achieved, and no more need to let him live, I will kill him once and for all so that I will finally get my hands on that blasted fortune. And all within weeks before the day in which my soon to be late nephew would have been granted it himself."

The Titans all looked each other in the eyes. Galtry did have a point. Beast Boy's birthday was on March 19, which was only a week or two away at this point. But then Starfire realized one other detail.

"But wouldn't allowing your own blood to be exposed to Beast Boy's at this time allow you to potentially get infected with the Primetia as well?"

Her fellow Titans all thought to themselves, realized that she actually had a valid point, and looked back at Galtry, who nodded his head. "And thus we reach the crux of the matter."

He looked back at the Titans. "For you do bring up a very good point. What point would there be in my triumphing over my nephew and his parents after all this time if the end result was my either dying or becoming a mindless monster as a result of the very thing I created to help make achieving said triumph possible? But fortunately for me, I was smart enough to think about this possibility." He gestured towards Chang. "And as it so happens, after we first figured out how to successfully create Primetia, we didn't get _really_ serious about making mass samples of it until we managed to successfully find and create an antidote."

At this point, Galtry directed a meaningful look towards the underling holding the two syringes. The Titans followed his gaze in time to see the underling in question very pointedly holding the safe into view. While the captive Titans briefly gaped at the safe in confusion, Galtry let a wolf-like grin come on his face. "But in a rare stroke of good luck on my part, Professor Chang achieved over the course of two months what so many more reputable scientists had failed to achieve after untold years of only managing to acquire only some of the most comparatively meager data on Sakutia."

The minion with the safe placed the compartment down gently upon the same countertop as the gene extractor and the broken mind control collar. Without a word, he entered in a code and opened the safe, causing a large burst of icy mist to briefly burst out. Evidently, this safe had a built-in refrigeration system. But once the icy mist had fully dissipated, the Titans were granted a clear view of a pair of syringes filled with a dull yellow liquid that were lying upon the floor of the safe's interior.

"Behold," Galtry purred, grin still on his face. "The very first successful prototype cure for Primetia."

Robin, Cyborg, and the girls could only gape in stunned silence at the two syringes containing the apparent all-important antidote. They could barely believe it. As much as they'd been hoping that such a cure would in fact be available, a part of them had nonetheless been reasonable enough to consider the possibility of there indeed being no chance of successfully curing Beast Boy of Primetia. But now, it seemed indeed entirely likely that, provided the liquid in the two syringes was indeed what Galtry claimed it to be, there was in fact a chance at saving their friend.

"It took quite a lot of time."

The Titans looked to Chang, who nodded his head. "Not to mention an insane amount of hard work. And I dare not even begin to describe how close I got to going mad over the course of it all. But against all odds, I persevered. And in the end, I have done it. Doubt not dear guests. What you see in that safe is exactly what my benefactor claims it to be. We would know. We tested."

The Titans' eyes widened, and then narrowed. As one, they directed a withering glare at the wizened old doctor.

"Tested?" Raven hissed.

"What do you mean tested?" Cyborg growled.

Galtry chuckled maliciously, attracting the captive heroes' attention in the process. "He means exactly what he says. We tested the antidote."

"How?" Robin snarled through gritted teeth. Starfire likewise glowered Galtry's way with her eyes glowing solid green.

"The same way we tested Primetia and all the prototypes for it we had to burn through before finally getting it right." Galtry directed a slight glance at the four domes out of the corner of his eye. "On live subjects."

"Very unfortunate I'm afraid," Chang added. But then he nodded his head and let a proud grin of his own come on his face. "But let us be honest. When it comes to science, sometimes there are sacrifices that just simply must be made."

Starfire was very quick to react. With an incoherent scream of rage, she zoomed over to the energy barrier sealing her and her friends inside the makeshift cell and slammed her fists furiously against it. "YOU MONSTER!" She roared, eyes still glowing with solid green light, and her fists now encased with a similar green aura as if about to try to summon her star bolts. "THIS IS THE LOW FOR EVEN YOU!"

Chang's smile only grew bigger. "There were already plenty of eager and willing Russian soldiers who met a bad end in my efforts at getting the formula just right for that serum I used on that one Russian ally of yours," he spoke, almost purring. "What difference does it make for me being responsible for a similar fate befalling twice as many unwilling test subjects amongst native Lamumbans or underlings of Galtry, myself, and the Wildebeest society who fail or similarly displease us?"

The captive Titans all snarled in rage at this.

"And humans aren't the only ones we did tests on."

The Titans all looked to Galtry.

"Remember passing by a room on your way here that sounded like it contained a large bunch of wild animals mindlessly vocalizing and going crazy?"

The Titans thought to themselves, now feeling unnerved as they slowly realized that, now that they thought about it, they had indeed passed by such a room while being escorted to their cell.

"Well all the animals in that room are not only all the test subject animals that survived, but also all the animals we used to acquire necessary Sakutia samples that are still alive."

Raven narrowed her eyes hatefully at Galtry once more, fighting desperately against the power of the inhibitor runes to get her powers to activate. "You vile little demon," she hissed.

Galtry only chuckled. "Oh trust me dearie, I've been called a lot worse."

"Regardless," Chang broke in. "I should also mention that the antidote, while indeed successful, is far from perfect." He gestured towards the two syringes. "From what we've observed, it only targets active virus cells. Any already deadened and inactive cells are left unharmed. Likewise, it doesn't at all affect the chlorophyll cells responsible for the victims' coloration. Nor does it work on any animal victims that have completely lost themselves to the rage. And furthermore, it only seems to have any affect if directly injected into a victim's bloodstream. All tests of it in gas form have proven useless. And there's Lord knows how many other factors and tests we still have yet to work on. To name just one example of such, we still don't know it is capable of healing Sakutia itself as well as Primetia."

He nodded. "And on a slightly unrelated note, this same antidote is also not the easiest to make. Even without the fact that I had to place as much time and effort as possible into making mass quantities of Primetia samples, successfully brewing a single appropriate dosage's worth of the antidote took almost an entire day at the very least. And without counting the various failed prototypes, I've only ever made 13 samples of the antidote, 11 of which have since been used."

"He's right." The Wildebeest Society leader nodded his head. "There was the very first successful batch of the antidote. Then he created the next 12, 6 of which were tested on animals, and another 4 of which were tested on humans."

"Exactly," Chang agreed. He looked to the underling with the safe. "You may now return those to the vault where you found them."

The underling in question nodded, closed the safe, and departed the room to return the antidote samples to where he'd gotten them from. Once the underling with the two antidote samples had departed, all the other villainous figures in the room turned their gaze back to the Titans. At this point, the captives' glared half angrily and half nervously at their captors. They now had a very bad feeling that things were about to get particularly unpleasant for them. The fact that Chang, Galtry, and the Latina amongst the four Wildebeest Society chief scientists all had the exact same wolf-like grin of maniacal glee on their faces didn't help. Nor did the fact that Galtry happened to also be directing an ominous glance towards the four domes out of the corner of his eye, or the fact that the underling holding onto the Primetia sample was making a very big point of allowing the Titans to see him place it inside a nearby miniature refrigerator.

Robin eventually managed to swallow his fear, straighten up as best as he could, and put on as convincing of a brave face as he could manage. "Ok," he began. "You've explained pretty much your entire overall plan now. And for that, I thank you. But if you don't mind." He pointed towards the fridge. "Just what exactly do you have in mind for us?"

The sound of Chang laughing caused the Titans to briefly direct their attention exclusively towards him. The wizened old scientist chuckled, shook his head side to side in bemusement, and then drew out none other than one of the confiscated T-communicators. "I shall leave you now to get the full details on _that_ from my benefactor and his Wildebeest Society allies. But as for me." He pointed at the underling of his who'd been holding the Primetia sample that was now in the fridge. "Burns and I shall be leaving. For right now, Burns needs to get back to work on helping the rest of my boys with continued production on more Primetia samples. And I myself have a phone call to make within the next half hour." He lowered his goggles so that the four captives could get a clear look at the maniacal gleam in his dark eyes. "And trust me, the news I'll be giving to your green friend when I call him? I can assure that it will be more than enough incentive to come visit. And once you hear that same news from his uncle immediately after I leave this room, you'd have to be very stupid indeed not to agree."

**And just like that, another chapter done! Hope you all enjoyed everyone! Especially after the somewhat long wait! And I especially hope you leave plenty of feedback (remember, an exact minimum of ONE review is required for this chapter specifically in order for me to allow posting of the next completed chapter). Again, hope you enjoyed! And please do stay safe everyone!**

**Coming up Next: The celebration is in full swing at Tawaba's village over Beast Boy's finally being back and visiting them once more after all the time that's gone by. But then the whole thing comes to a crashing halt when Beast Boy receives unpleasant news via an equally unpleasant phone call from none other than Professor Chang himself. And from there, it's time for some serious planning and equally serious willingness from Beast Boy to take some big risks in order for there to be any chance of our favorite shapeshifter saving his friends and getting ahold of the antidote.**


	15. A Heroic Risk

**Hey dudes and dudettes! Hope you haven't lost faith in me, because I now present the latest chapter! In this new chapter, the celebration is in full swing for the tribe in honor of Beast Boy's returning to them once more after so many years. Unfortunately, the festivities and joy are soon put on hold when Beast Boy receives an unpleasant phone call from Professor Chang. And from there, it's time for Beast Boy, Wildebeest, Jungle Cat, Ambush, and the tribe to really get their heads together and figure out just what they're going to do if they are to save Beast Boy's fellow founding Titans, get Beast Boy cured, and defeat Chang and his associates over the course of the day to follow. Sound worth a read? I certainly hope so!**

**A/N: Remember, I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. Furthermore, while I have made some unique alterations to it for the sake of my stories and connected it to the real life cryptid known as emela ntouka, I also do not own the idea of the creature known as the erumpent either. The only things I do own are my OCs. All that said, hope you all read and enjoy everyone!**

**Chapter 14:**

**A Heroic Risk**

A feeling of great joy and enthusiasm permeated the village that evening. Everywhere one looked there were people singing, dancing, beating upon dreams, telling stories, eating, drinking, telling jokes, laughing, or similarly making merry. Beast Boy, despite his current situation, was nonetheless amongst the many happy people celebrating even though he was currently in the midst of a break from the last few activities in which he'd taken part. After all, for all the unpleasantness he'd currently undergone and was at risk of experiencing later, he was certainly not going to deny how happy he was to have finally reunited with his old tribal friends from his childhood.

His three mutant companions were similarly enjoying themselves. Wildebeest was clearly having the time of his life playing games and similarly taking part in whatever activities the young children of the tribe were taking part in. Jungle Cat and Ambush, meanwhile, were taking part in the celebratory dances, often making a very glaringly clear point to almost constantly be partnered up together whenever the situation called for having a partner. This, combined with the looks he saw on their faces over the course of the whole business, was enough for the changeling to feel quite convinced that the two feline mutants were far more than mere best friends.

He couldn't help but let a smile come on his face at this thought. After all, as much as he himself hadn't had the best of luck with romance in his life so far, he certainly wouldn't begrudge others of their own happiness in such matters. Then he just so happened to think about Robin and Starfire, at which point he directed a worried glance towards where he kept his communicator. He was now starting to become rather unnerved over the fact that he hadn't received any contact whatsoever from his fellow founders since the previous night. He especially couldn't help but feel worried for the well-being of Raven in particular. As much as he was still not entirely certain just how he truly felt for her, he could not deny that he'd become considerably more protective of the dark half demon sorceress then the Beast had already caused him to act previously after the events of Valentine's Day just the previous month.

"I hope they're ok," he thought to himself, mentally debating whether or not he should go ahead and attempt to call them himself right that very moment.

"Is something troubling you?"

Beast Boy looked up in time to see none other than Mumbyo standing before him. The shapeshifter chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head in the process. "Oh not really," he managed to see. "Just…um…"

"Concerned for your friends?"

Beast Boy sighed. "Yeah."

Mumbyo thought to himself. "Do you wish to try to contact them?"

Beast Boy hung his head. "I don't know. I mean, I know I probably should." He directed a glance at the celebration going on around him and Mumbyo. "But I don't want to dampen the mood either."

The chieftain king's son raised his eyebrow. "Depending on just what sort of situation your friends are currently experiencing, the possibility of dampening the mood for this celebration may very well be the least of your worries."

"I know," Beast Boy grumbled. "But even so, I don't know if I can even trust whether or not my instincts are currently getting all antsy over their lack of contact or the virus in me. And for all I know, they could very well have their communicators in a state in which I might not be able to reach them even if I tried."

He shook his head, sighing once more. Then he looked back at Mumbyo, a determined look on his face. "About when do you think the celebration will start to wind down?"

The dark-skinned boy pointed up towards where the moon was currently positioned. "When the moon reaches a specific position," he explained. "The tribe begins preparations for sleep. I presume that you are planning on attempting to contact your friends at around that point?"

"Possibly." The shapeshifter nodded his head. "Though that will depend on about how long it should take for the moon to reach that position."

"It shouldn't be too much longer before then," said Mumbyo. "I'll give you a signal for when it gets close to that time so that you can have time to prepare. And then I'll give you another when the moon has reached that position, just to make sure that you are aware of as much when it happens."

"Sounds like a plan dude." The changeling gave his friend a thumbs up. "But for the sake of a compromise, I'm now also planning on attempting to contact my friends in about half an hour's time, regardless of whether the moon has reached that bedtime position you mentioned, just to be safe."

"Understood." Mumbyo nodded. "That should at least be enough time for you to real quick tell another story or two about your adventures to the children. They've really seemed to enjoy hearing you tell them. In fact, I was originally going to ask if you were willing to start telling some more of your stories to them when I came over to you just now."

Beast Boy smiled, a toothy grin now on his face. "Well in that case," he then said, ramming his right fist against his gloved left palm. "Let's not keep them waiting."

. . . . .

Jungle Cat and Ambush couldn't help but smile as they watched Beast Boy and Mumbyo working together to tell stories to the children of the village, with Nyota and Wildebeest also amongst the audience. At that moment, the two feline mutants were sitting upon the roof of one of the huts as they took a break from the dancing they'd been taking part in not too long ago. And as they watched the story telling session unfold, Ambush couldn't help but chuckle at what she was hearing Beast Boy saying over the course of his turns at narrating. From what she'd been told earlier in the celebration, the stories that the shapeshifter was telling were in fact overly simplified and dramatized accounts of many of the adventures he himself had gone on alongside his four fellow founders amongst the American superhero team called the Teen Titans. Furthermore, while Beast Boy was reportedly perfectly capable of speaking Swahili, he was now choosing to tell the stories in English for Wildebeest's benefit while having Mumbyo speak in Swahili for the sake of all the local village children, the majority of whom only spoke that very language. She chuckled again at the sight of Wildebeest very dramatically going 'ooh' and 'aah' at the current point that the shapeshifter had reached in a story that appeared, at face value, to be about a time he and his friends had survived a literal apocalypse and fought an epic battle against some sort of demon with almost literally god-like power. She had to admit, this certainly sounded like a story that, if indeed true, she and Jungle Cat could perhaps be willing to hear the exact version of in regard to what had actually happened.

"I see you are still amused."

Ambush chuckled and gave Jungle Cat a playful elbow jab to the ribs. "Darn right I am," she purred.

Jungle Cat briefly winced and rubbed his ribs before then letting a toothy grin come on his face and playfully wiggling his clawed left-hand fingers towards Ambush's face, much to the further amusement of his companion. Once they'd both calmed back down, Ambush took a brief look back at the group that had gathered for the story telling before then looking back at Jungle Cat. "What about you?" She then asked. "Still having fun watching?"

"I suppose I am." The lion mutant nodded his head, scratching the back of his jet-black mane with his fingers immediately afterward. "Granted, the story he told immediately before this one was arguably a lot funnier."

Ambush let an amused grin come on her furry face, her yellow eyes agleam with mirth. "You mean the 'grand epic tale of the fantastic romance between the champion warrior leader and the princess of sky and fire'?"

"Yep." Jungle Cat chuckled, his red eyes narrowed in amusement. "Granted, I won't deny that the way he told it was probably a _seriously_ exaggerated version of whatever it was that actually happened. But _man_ was it entertaining to listen to."

"You can say that again," Ambush chuckled in agreement. Immediately after she said this, she found herself briefly struggling not to laugh as she remembered a moment from Beast Boy's telling of that particular story that she'd found especially funny. Specifically, the fact that, apparently, the 'champion warrior leader' had ended up forced to take part in a 'dance of romance' with the daughter of 'a terrible moth demon' in order to prevent said demon from having its vicious army of 'moth dragons' destroy the Titans' home city, a condition that had also reportedly angered and annoyed the 'princess of sky and fire' so much that she'd accompanied the warrior to the 'mating dance gathering' and eventually been all too eager to take part in a subsequent 'mating rites battle' against the moth demon's daughter at the exact same time that the warrior leader had ended up doing battle with the daughter's apparent former desired mate, a spider-demon crazily enough, that had decided to crash the party with an attempted reconciliation gift it had stolen. And before long, Jungle Cat soon found himself struggling not to laugh as well upon seeing the look on Ambush's face and realizing what she was thinking about. After all, from the way Beast Boy had narrated this particular part of the story, they couldn't help but envision the admittedly quite bizarrely humorous image of the seemingly rather serious and no-nonsense young man they'd seen in the photos on Beast Boy's communicator of who they presumed to be the 'warrior leader' dancing with a humanoid moth-like monster.

Finally, they couldn't hold it in any longer, and they both burst out into a complete fit of side-splitting laughter. And within minutes, Jungle Cat found himself practically beating his chest with his right fist to try to get himself to stop before he started having trouble breathing while Ambush found herself having delirious tears pouring down her face from laughing so hard. That in mind, they also felt very glad that, while still able to hear and see the storytelling session in action, they were still far enough way to avoid getting overheard in their current laughing fit.

Once they finally calmed down, they took a deep breath, exhaled, and looked back towards where the story telling session was taking place. "I'll freely admit though," Ambush stated, a faraway look on her face as she thought of a certain other detail regarding the story she and Jungle Cat had just had a huge laugh over. "I really do hope that the warrior and princess are happy together."

"Me to," Jungle Cat agreed.

Acting on subconscious impulse, the lion mutant gently placed his left hand on Ambush's right hand. "However things unfold from here, I hope we both make it out alive."

"Indeed," Ambush purred. She leaned her head upon Jungle Cat's left shoulder, her golden blonde hair draping over her friend's back as she sighed in half contentment and half trepidation for possible scenarios to come. "I really don't want to lose any more friends Leon. Especially not after what happened to George."

Leon Kingston, now known solely as Jungle Cat, nodded his leonine head in agreement. "Me neither Yolanda. Me neither. Hell, I still don't know how we're gonna explain it to the others when they notice he's not there with us."

"Too true," agreed Yolanda Bushwick, now known exclusively as Ambush. She nodded her head from its position on Jungle Cat's shoulder, small hints of tears starting to form in her eyes. "God, what will Winston and Ursula say?"

Jungle Cat nodded his head grimly at the reminder of their friends Winston Ryerson and Ursula Goolsby, now also known by their mutation project codenames Rhinestone and Grizzly Girl. Of the four companions still under the Wildebeest Society's custody those two in particular had been especially close with the dead and departed George Abrams, otherwise known under the codename Curious George. He then hung his head and sighed, his grim mood worsening as he found himself also remembering how their other two still captive friends, Owen Scoresby and Claire Houlihan, also known nowadays under the codenames Swamp Gator and Night Howler, had been almost murderous with rage towards George over the course of their capture after the failed rebellion.

Out of all 7 of them, those two had undeniably been the ones who'd hated being the Wildebeest Society's prisoners the most. And as a result, the failure of their escape attempt, plus the subsequent placing under cryogenic freezing, had hit them the hardest thanks to both how desperately they'd wanted to escape _and_ the fact that George had promised prior to the rebellion that the escape attempt would work and that they'd all be free that very night. And in their subsequent blind rage at what they'd viewed at the time as a betrayal, they'd howled and snarled curses and abuse at George all the way up till the moment that they finally were forced to stop by virtue of being forced against their will into falling asleep. And now, with George dead over the course of an arguably 3rd failed attempt at getting them out, they'd now never have the chance to apologize and make things right again, something that he knew all too well that they'd feel incredibly guilty and self-hateful about for weeks. Swamp Gator in particular he knew would feel even more so since, while Night Howler had merely recriminated George for 'breaking his promise', Swamp Gator had been unlucky enough for the very last thing he'd ever said to George prior to going into hibernation to just happen to be calling him a filthy lying erudite and claiming that he'd hated him.

Then he felt Ambush wrap her arms around him, and he directed a briefly confused look at her. She lifted her head sufficiently enough to look him in the eyes. "All that in mind, I especially don't want to lose you."

Jungle Cat thought to himself, then nodded and returned his companion's embrace. "Right back at you," he stated. "Right back at you."

The two mutants placed their foreheads together, eyes closed as they both purred in contentment at the contact. "I love you," Jungle Cat whispered.

Ambush smiled at the sound of what Jungle Cat had just whispered to her. "Right back at you," she purred. "Right back at you."

They remained in this position for what felt like an hour, only leaving when they heard Tawaba call for everyone to gather in the center of the village for one final task before bed.

. . . . .

Beast Boy felt very confused as he stood in the center of the village alongside everyone else in the area. He looked at Mumbyo and Nyota, who shrugged, seeming just as confused as him. Beast Boy took a quick look at the night sky, and then at his watch, his eyes narrowing as he realized that it was starting to get around the time that he hoped to go ahead and try to contact his four fellow founding Titans.

He observed the area around him, taking note of how all the adults amongst the tribespeople seemed to be patiently waiting and expectant for what they all seemed to consider to be something rather exciting. He also noticed how Wildebeest and the children and teens amongst the tribespeople all seemed equal parts confused and equal parts excited. Then he also noticed how Ambush and Jungle Cat, likewise confused and excited, were subtly holding hands. At the sight of this, he let a brief smirk come on his face. "Yep," he thought to himself. "They _definitely_ have a thing going on."

Then he noticed everyone else in the area all tense up as if at attention, and he turned his head in time to see none other than Tawaba and N'jobu step into view, the shaman's five young apprentices following close behind. At the sight of this, Beast Boy took a deep breath and focused his attention as much as he could on Tawaba and the shaman. He had a feeling that whatever it was that Tawaba had called for this gathering to be held for must be especially important if it required the involvement of the village shaman.

Tawaba nodded his head, tapped his staff against the ground twice, and then lifted his left hand skyward. "My friends," he stated calmly. "Today we have been granted a truly joyous blessing. Our lost friend and brother, Garfield Logan, has at long last returned to us!"

"Hiyo ni sawa!" N'jobu yelled.

"Hiyo ni sawa!" The rest of the tribe yelled in unison.

Tawaba nodded his head once more. "And we have spent practically the entire evening now rightly celebrating our good fortune."

"Hiyo ni sawa!" Rang the mass reply of all the other villagers.

"But now," Tawaba stated, a firm, but not unkind, tone to his voice. "Now there is one last thing we must do to properly bring this great celebration to a close before we retire to sleep." He looked straight at Beast Boy and beckoned for the changeling to come to him. "Garfield," he stated. "Come forward."

In that instant, everyone was looking straight at the changeling. Beast Boy gulped, half excited and half nervous. He looked briefly around at everyone else gathered around him. Then he looked back at Tawaba, took a deep breath, and then slowly started to make his way over to where the tribe's chieftain king was standing and waiting for him. As he did so, he heard N'jobu start to slowly chant.

"Jiunge," the shaman stated, repeating the same word again, and again, and again. As Beast Boy continued to move closer, the shaman continued chanting this phrase, with the rest of the tribe all gradually joining in. Before long, the entire village rang with the sound of the villagers continuously chanting 'jiunge'. Even Wildebeest, Jungle Cat, and Ambush, despite having absolutely no idea what the word meant, found themselves joining in through sheer impulse from getting caught up in the moment.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity to everyone present, Beast Boy finally came to a stop directly in front of Tawaba. Only then did Tawaba give the signal for the chanting to stop. The ones chanting were quick to obey, and dead silence hang in the air as they all gazed intently at the changeling.

Tawaba gestured for Beast Boy to step forward between him and N'jobu, which the changeling nervously did, turning around to face the rest of the crowd immediately afterward. Without warning, Tawaba switched his staff over to his left hand, grabbed Beast Boy's left wrist with his right hand, and lifted it up into the air.

"For many moons he and his family lived alongside us!" Tawaba yelled. "We all watched him grow! We all treated him and his parents as if they were our own! We all cared for them, laughed with them, made merry with them, and all manner of other activities as well!"

"Hiyo ni sawa!"

"And even when his parents were tragically taken from us," Tawaba continued. "We still let him stay with us and be treated like one of our own! And even now, not a day has gone by where I haven't considered him just as much my child as I do the son and daughter that I myself sired!"

"Hiyo ni sawa!"

"But now the time has come! Long have we considered him one of us! Long have we treated him as if he were a part of our own family! Long have we considered him likely to be just as worthy of such an honor as any of our own! And as of today, even after countless moons away from us, he is surely no less worthy or deserving of this great honor that shall soon be bestowed upon him!"

He looked intently at all the other villagers. "Is this right everyone? Is he worthy? Is he one of us? Does he have the right to join us?"

"Ndio!" All the other villagers shouted in unison. "Hiyo ni sawa! Anastahili! Yeye ni mmoja wetu! Na ajiunge nasi!"

"I repeat!" Tawaba yelled. "Is this right?! Is he worthy?! Is he one of us?! Does he have the right to join us?!"

"Ndio! Hiyo ni sawa! Anastahili! Yeye ni mmoja wetu! Na ajiunge nasi!"

"ONE MORE TIME!" Tawaba howled. "IS THIS RIGHT?! IS HE WORTHY?! IS HE ONE OF US?! DOES HE HAVE THE RIGHT TO JOIN US?!"

"NDIO! HIYO NI SAWA! ANASTAHILI! YEYE NI MMOJA WETU! NA AJIUNGE NASI!"

"Then let us delay it no longer! We have waited long enough, and at long last the time has come!"

Tawaba let go of Beast Boy's wrist, waiting until the changeling had lowered his arm back down before then speaking once more. "Your shirt and gloves, if you please."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow, briefly uncertain how to respond. But then he shrugged, took off his shirt and gloves, and placed them gently down on a nearby grass mat, leaving his entire green upper body, plus his clawed hands, on full display. The changeling looked to Tawaba, who nodded, and then gestured towards N'jobu. Beast Boy turned to face the shaman, who also nodded, and then extended his hand towards Beast Boy. "Your hands, dear friend."

Confused, but in no mood to argue, the changeling extended his hands forward. N'jobu nodded, evidently pleased, and then picked up a small container of what appeared to be some sort of tribal paint before then gently grabbing onto Beast Boy's right wrist and getting to work.

For what felt like an entire hour, Beast Boy found himself working carefully with N'jobu and his five apprentices as they all worked to apply the paint on the changeling's arms, chest, back, face, and neck. It even got to the point where the shapeshifter had to get down on his knees in order for them to successfully do it all correctly. Once they were done and he was allowed to stand up again, his entire upper body looked as if it had been patterned deliberately after a leopard, with dark red spots all over his arms, chest, and back, his eyes outlined by solid golden yellow paint, one dark red spot on each of his cheeks, and a pair of what appeared to be upside down fang-shaped markings painted upon his chin directly underneath his mouth.

Tawaba let silence hang in the air for a few seconds just for dramatic effect. Then he nodded his head and gestured with his staff towards the changeling. "Behold! This is our lost brother! He is now adorned with the same markings that all the other boys born and raised in this village are adorned with when their own time comes to be put to the final test of whether or not they are truly ready to be men, whether or not they are capable of bringing honor to this village and our ways, and whether or not they are truly worthy of being considered truly one of us! Do I believe that is the case for him?!"

He let another brief pause fill the air. Then he nodded his head. "Yes. I do. He is worthy. He is one of us." He looked to N'jobu and his apprentices. "What does our shaman say? Does he believe that is the case for him?!"

"Yes," said N'jobu.

"He is worthy," said two of the apprentices.

"He is one of us," said the remaining three.

Tawaba looked to 6 other warriors his age sitting directly between all the 'civilians' and the area where Tawaba, Beast Boy, and the shaman were positioned. "What of our council?!" Tawaba then yelled. "Do they believe that is the case for him?!"

"Yes! He is worthy! He is one of us!"

Tawaba now looked to the entire rest of the group gathered for the ceremony. "And what of the rest of our great tribe?! Do you all believe that is the case for him?!"

"Yes! He is worthy! He is one of us!"

Tawaba let a wide grin come on his face, and then he looked straight at Beast Boy. "And what of you," he stated in a considerably more calm and quiet tone of voice. "Do you believe that to be the case for yourself?"

For about a minute, Beast Boy thought to himself. But then he nodded his head. "Yes," he stated. "I do."

"Then we are all in agreement?!" Tawaba shouted, raising both hands, plus his staff, in the air as he turned to face the rest of the people gathered. "He is worthy?! He is one of us?! He has the right to join us?!"

"NDIO!" Shouted literally every person in the area other than Tawaba and Beast Boy. Even Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat took part in this mass group shout. "HIYO NI SAWA! ANASTAHILI! YEYE NI MMOJA WETU! NA AJIUNGE NASI!"

"AGAIN!" Tawaba howled. "IS HE WORTHY?! IS HE ONE OF US?! DOES HE HAVE THE RIGHT TO JOIN US?!"

"NDIO! HIYO NI SAWA! ANASTAHILI! YEYE NI MMOJA WETU! NA AJIUNGE NASI!"

"ONE LAST TIME!" Tawaba roared. "IS HE WORTHY?! IS HE ONE OF US?! DOES HE HAVE THE RIGHT TO JOIN US?!"

"NDIO! HIYO NI SAWA! ANASTAHILI! YEYE NI MMOJA WETU! NA AJIUNGE NASI!"

"THEN LET US NOW STEP ASIDE FOR THE FINAL VOTE TO BE MADE! I HAVE DETERMINED HIM WORTHY! HE HAS DETERMINED HIMSELF WORTHY! WE ALL HAVE DETERMINED HIM WORTHY! BUT NOW! NOW IT IS TIME! TO LET THE GODS AND SPIRITS DECIDE WHETHER HE IS WORTHY!"

Immediately after Tawaba said this, the six councilmen stood up and made their way over towards a large firepit positioned directly behind where Tawaba was positioned. The king joined them, at which point they all lifted their staffs into the air and got into a circle around the fire. And then, at the sound of some of the villagers starting to play a rhythmic beat upon some drums, Tawaba and the six other warriors began to engage in what appeared to be some sort of ritual that involved them alternating between lifting up their staffs, slamming the bottom ends on the ground, and spinning them around in a stereotypical martial arts style. Beast Boy couldn't help but gape intently at the way Tawaba and the council men were acting, as it reminded him a lot of similar behavior from the Durmstrang students during their entrance at Hogwarts in the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. His eyes only widened further when the seven men all threw some sort of strange dust into the fire that caused it to turn a mysterious rainbow color, followed by them sticking the top ends of their staffs into the fire and then withdrawing the staffs in time to show the top ends burning like torches; at which point they began to repeat the ritualistic behaviors they'd done immediately beforehand. As this happened, he also noticed that each of the flames upon the staffs were of a different color, with Tawaba's flame being a pure white in very clear contrast against the red, yellow, green, purple, black, and blue flames on the staffs of the other six men. Eventually, this second round of ritualistic behavior ended, at which point all seven of the men placed the burning ends of their staffs together, allowing the seven flames to converge into a single fire. No sooner had this been done when Tawaba took a deep breath and blew on it, miraculously managing to cause a single large stream of multicolored fire straight towards Beast Boy!

The shapeshifter tensed up as if about to run, only to then pause in confusion as what seemed to be some sort of invisible barrier formed around him that the flames harmlessly rushed along the edges of without touching him. Once the entire jet of flame had harmlessly gone past him, it took on the shape of a large rainbow-colored leopard, which then roared in the direction of all the onlookers before then fading into smoke, briefly obscuring Beast Boy completely from everyone's sight.

For what felt like an eternity, the smoke remained in place, keeping Beast Boy hidden from view. The audience kept their focus firmly planted upon the smoke, simultaneously excited and nervous about both how long the smoke was taking to dissipate as well as the possibility of what would be revealed once it was gone. Then the smoke started gradually fading away, first allowing all that were gathered to just barely see the still dark and partially obscured outline of Beast Boy. But then the smoke dissipated further, and the eyes of all that were watching widened at the sight of Beast Boy's markings; or more specifically, the fact that they were now all glowing pure white, much to the clear bewilderment of the shapeshifter.

Tawaba swiftly raised his staff towards the heavens, a giddy look of glee on his face. "THE GODS AND SPIRITS HAVE SPOKEN!" He howled exultantly. "OUR LOST BROTHER GARFIELD LOGAN HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO THE FLAMES OF THE SPIRITS AND COME OUT UNSCATHED! THOSE SAME FLAMES HAVE TAKEN THE SHAPE OF A LEOPARD FOR HIM! AND HIS MARKINGS OF MANHOOD NOW GLOW WITH THE COLOR OF THE GODS' APPROVAL! THEY AGREE WITH US AND ACCEPT OUR CHOICE! WE HAVE ALL SPOKEN AND CAST OUR VOTE, AND IT IS UNANIMOUS! AS OF TONIGHT, GARFIELD LOGAN IS ONCE AND FOREVER MORE ONE OF US!"

At the sound of this, the entirety of the crowd, plus N'jobu and his apprentices, and even the six warriors of Tawaba's council let out an echoing cheer of joy and triumph. Wildebeest even went so far as to let out a triumphant war whoop-like scream while Jungle Cat and Ambush let out an exultant earthshaking roar in unison. As this happened, Beast Boy remained standing where he was, half shocked and half overjoyed. Then he let out a nervous laugh, lifting his left hand skyward while rubbing the front of his forehead with his right hand.

"This…" he thought to himself. "This is amazing!" He let a small trace of happy tears start to build up in his eyes. "Even…after all this time…they still think…I'm family to them…"

The glowing white markings on him eventually stopped glowing, the markings themselves seemingly vanishing from his skin along with the glow. Then the changeling felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head in time to see Tawaba nodding his head, a proud look on his face.

"The tribe and I have always considered you and your parents as family amongst us," the chieftain king said. "And now, after so many moons, we have finally made it official. As I said, you are, starting tonight, one of us forever more. And I have every reason to believe that, if your parents are watching from the afterlife, they will be both very happy with what has happened tonight and very much in agreement with us over your being worthy of it."

Beast Boy nodded his head, a half happy and half sad look on his face. "Thank you," he managed to say.

"You are most welcome." Tawaba placed his other hand on Beast Boy's other shoulder, leaving his staff leaning against a nearby hut in the process. "I may not have raised you or sired you myself, but I was not kidding when I said that I consider you my son just as much as Mumbyo. And the fact that you have now officially been accepted as an honorary member of the tribe is by no means something to be taken lightly. Understand?"

The changeling nodded his head. "Understood."

"Good." Tawaba nodded his head. "And furthermore, due to certain other circumstances and elements of your life outside this village, you are not only allowed to leave and enter the village whenever you wish, within reason of course, but also spend as much time here in the village as you wish whenever you do visit. And furthermore, any friends of yours that you wish to bring here are allowed the same privileges as you while visiting as long as they honor our code, customs, and ideals just as much as you do."

Beast Boy nodded his head once more. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good." Tawaba nodded his head one more time before finally removing his hands from the changeling's shoulders and reclaiming his staff. He looked to the rest of the people gathered around him and Beast Boy. "At this time," he then stated. "We shall ready ourselves for bed. Further celebration for our lost brother's finally being officially named one of us shall occur in the days to come."

The rest of the tribe stated their agreement before moving at their leader's signal to return to their homes and prepare for bed. Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat likewise appeared ready to do the same, as did Beast Boy. But then the silence was abruptly shattered by the sound of a distinctive electronic ringing noise.

For a brief moment, everyone gathered was either stunned or made wary by this noise. But then Beast Boy grimaced, let a sheepish half smile come on his face, and drew his communicator out of his pants pocket. Sure enough, it was responsible for the ringing. "Sorry about that," he then said. He looked at the rest of the people present and nodded his head. "It's probably my friends calling," he explained. He quickly took a look at the communicator to see who was calling, unwittingly letting a small smile come on his face and his eyes brighten at the sight of it apparently being Raven. "Yep, it's them. I'll just real quick talk before I go to bed. I was honestly starting to worry about why none of them had called me yet today anyway."

"I understand," said Tawaba. "Just try not to stay up too much longer than absolutely necessary before going to sleep."

"Don't worry, I know."

With a final acknowledging nod of his head, Tawaba turned away and started moving towards the direction of his hut, the rest of the tribe likewise doing the same. Even Wildebeest, Jungle Cat, and Ambush started moving off in the direction of the spare hut that had been set aside for them and the changeling, but not without the two feline mutants surreptitiously directing a knowing look into each other's eyes and letting a smug grin come on their furry faces. After all, they had managed to see the look that had briefly popped up on the shapeshifter's face when he'd checked the caller ID on his communicator, and they had a feeling that the Titan currently calling him was very likely the 'sorceress of blood and shadows' that he'd seemed in their eyes to have a considerably closer bond with compared to the rest of his friends amongst the 'founding Titans'.

The people closest to the village center's edges were just starting to fully depart from the area when Beast Boy accepted the call and placed his communicator and placed his communicator up to his ear. "Hey there Rae…"

"Good evening."

Beast Boy's eyes widened, his face almost literally turning white at the sound of the very unexpected voice he'd just heard speak to him. "Professor Chang?!"

Wildebeest instantly halted in his movement, ears standing on end as he tensed up where he stood. Then he turned his head to look towards Beast Boy, a clearly alarmed look on his face. The sight of this was enough to convince Jungle Cat and Ambush to do the same. The entirety of the tribe likewise paused and turned to face the area where the now still quite stunned Beast Boy was positioned, themselves equally concerned and alerted by their newly integrated honorary tribesman's sudden alarmed shout.

The changeling in question remained alarmed even as he heard the sound of the wizened villainous scientist's chuckling on the other end of the line. "It appears you were not expecting to hear from me tonight. Then again, I suppose I'd honestly be quite surprised if you _had_ been expecting me to call you. Especially considering just what I'm using for the sake of this call."

In that instant, Beast Boy's eyes narrowed, a silent snarl coming on his face as he gritted his teeth. "What have you done with her?!" He growled. "If you've hurt her, or any of my other friends, in any way, I swear…"

"Now, now, no need to throw a tantrum little boy," Chang stated in a somewhat patronizing tone. "I'll let you have all the answers you need in good time. But first, tell me this, are you alone?"

The changeling raised his eyebrow. Then he directed a brief look towards everyone else in the area. Tawaba lifted his finger to his lips as if making a 'shush' gesture, and then made sure to direct his gaze at everyone else in the area while seemingly silently messaging them all to be as quiet as possible. Once they had all nodded their heads in agreement with Tawaba's request, the chieftain king looked back at Beast Boy and indicated for him to continue his call.

Beast Boy nodded. He lowered his communicator away from his ear before then putting it on speaker. "I am," he stated.

There was a brief pause on the other end. "How do I know you're telling the truth about that?"

Evidently, the professor had noticed just how long it had taken for Beast Boy to respond. The changeling's eyes narrowed. "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. But tell me this, does it really make any difference?"

There was another brief pause. Clearly, Chang had not been expecting the conversation to take this particular route. "Well, I suppose it doesn't really. But…"

"Then I suggest you start talking." Beast Boy leaned his head closer to the communicator. "After all, there's obviously something big you want me for. After all, you've already gone through a lot of trouble to infect me with Primetia despite my being immune to the effects that you'd want it to have on any humans. And considering how you've clearly captured my friends and are now planning to likely use them as leverage to convince me to come visit you at your new lab they were planning to investigate, I have hardly any reason to believe that I'm not correct in my suspicions about you having big plans for me. And if not you, then at least whoever you might be working for."

After one last pause on the other end of the line, the sound of Chang chuckling filled the air. "I'll admit, I'm impressed. Very well then, we shall discuss business." The scientist cleared his throat. "To start, you are correct. It was not by accident that you were the one chosen to be the target for that trap in which you got infected by Primetia. After all, while you may not be capable of suffering from the effects that it will have on the type of targets that anyone I eventually sell strands of it to will likely have in mind, there are nonetheless big plans for you that my current employer has in mind that made it quite necessary for you yourself to be infected."

"Well in that case," Beast Boy then stated, a smug look now on his face at the confirmation of the suspicion he'd shared with his fellow founders on the fact that he'd been deliberately targeted by the trap that had infected him. "Care to enlighten me on those plans? Or who your current boss is?"

"Sorry, not my call. But regardless, you'll have plenty good reason to drop by to drop by new lab tomorrow even without yet having full knowledge of my boss's plans for you."

"Let me guess," said Beast Boy. "This is the part where you confirm that you plan to threaten to kill my friends unless I arrive by a certain time."

"You've clearly been around the block," Chang responded. "But yes, that is exactly what my boss and I have in mind. And trust me, the exact kind of fate my boss has in mind for your fellow founders if you're a no-show tomorrow will be very unpleasant indeed."

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes once again. "Dare I ask?"

"Well here's the thing," Chang purred, a giddy chuckle briefly escaping him afterwards. "So far, over the course of all the tests I've made for Primetia, I've only ever been able to use 100% ordinary animals and equally 100% ordinary humans as test subjects. Naturally, for the sake of both science and for the sake of those who wish to buy Primetia off of me for their own gains, it would only make sense for me to take advantage of any opportunity I get to test its effects on metahumans, aliens, and other similar not quite fully human targets. And considering the nature of three of your fellow founders…"

Beast Boy's eyes narrowed even further, and a low dog-like snarling bubbled up past his gritted teeth. Already he had a very bad feeling exactly what Chang was threatening to do. "You sick little…"

"Uh, uh, uh," said the scientist. "I'd be careful with your words right now. After all, I could always go ahead and give the order to expose them to one of my Primetia samples right this very moment."

"And lose your leverage?" Beast Boy hissed. "I highly doubt that."

"Oh, but your friends aren't the only leverage my boss and I have over you right now."

"Oh really? And what else might you have that I want?"

"Need you even ask? A cure of course."

One could have heard a pin drop in the silence that ensued. "That's…that's impossible," Beast Boy managed to stammer, pale faced and wide eyed with shock.

"Says the sole surviving human victim of Sakutia," Chang purred in response.

As one, Beast Boy, the three mutants, and the tribespeople all looked nervously into each other's eyes. As much as they didn't want to admit it, Chang had brought up a disturbingly good point.

"Granted, I will admit, it certainly proved difficult. After all, plenty of other doctors just as smart as me, if not smarter, still haven't yet been able to cook up a cure for Sakutia, which I'm sure you are aware is the base for Primetia. But as difficult as it may be, it is most certainly not impossible. And while I wouldn't call it perfect, nor say with full confidence that it can cure Sakutia itself as well as Primetia, I do in fact have a cure available for Primetia. And I can assure you that it works. I would know; I tested it myself. And better yet, you wouldn't have to wait very long to receive it if you came. I've currently still got two premade samples of the antidote ready and raring to go right here at the lab. All you have to do is come on over, and I'll be happy to let you use one of them for yourself."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "You said you have two samples. Who's going to be using the other one?"

"Sorry. Need to know." Chang chuckled. "But regardless of who or what I use the other sample for, one of the two will be yours, free of charge, satisfaction guaranteed; so long as you come visit tomorrow within the desired time of course."

Beast Boy thought to himself. He had to admit, Chang's offer was certainly tempting. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not." Chang chuckled once again. "I suppose you'll just have to come visit and find out. But consider this…what if I _am_ telling the truth? This could very well be your only chance. And considering how long you've currently been infected, I daresay it's a miracle that you're even still of sound enough mind to talk, let alone use a phone. And I shudder to think of how little time you may yet still have right this very moment before you end up like all the animals I've had to use as test subjects that weren't lucky enough to get cured."

Beast Boy gritted his teeth, fighting with all his willpower not to snarl in irritation. Once again, Chang had brought up a very unpleasantly valid point.

"And even in the nonexistent event that I'm lying about having the means to cure you available," Chang continued. "What about your friends? Believe me young man, I wasn't lying when I told you what my boss and I currently have in mind for them to undergo if you don't come visit tomorrow. And that in mind, cure or no cure, are you really willing to risk their lives just to make life difficult for my boss and I?"

Beast Boy closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and stayed completely silent. As much as he hated to admit it, Chang was right yet again. Sure, there was very little doubt that he'd be walking right into a trap. But trap or no trap, abandoning his friends, especially Raven and Cyborg, to the mercy of Chang and whoever it was that the nefarious scientist was currently working for was quite simply out of the question. And furthermore, in the event that Chang was indeed telling the truth about having an antidote for Primetia ready and available, then this really would very likely his only chance of curing himself.

Chang chuckled once more from the other end of the line. "Judging by your silence, it would appear that you have seen the futility in resisting the inevitable." There was one last brief pause, perhaps to allow Chang to nod his head in agreement with his own assessment. "You have till 12 noon tomorrow. If that time comes, and you aren't at the lab, then your friends _will_ be my next patients. And all that said, I once again wish you good evening. Farewell…for now." A small clicking noise filled the air as Chang ended the call.

For what felt like an eternity, silence hung in the air as Beast Boy remained numbly positioned where he was while still holding onto his communicator, everyone else in the village keeping their gaze on him the entire time. Eventually, Beast Boy straightened up, a determined look on his face, and he directed his gaze straight towards Tawaba. In that instant, a silent message seemed to pass between them, as the chieftain king nodded soon after meeting the changeling's gaze. He looked to the rest of the villagers. "Everyone," he stated, a firm tone to his voice. "Let us get the children to bed. And once that is done, all in this village who are combat capable must join me and Garfield in the communal meeting area. I have a feeling that a great trial is ahead, and we must ensure that we are as well prepared for it as possible."

. . . . .

"So you are in fact going to go to the lab," Tawaba said as he sat cross-legged in the center of the meeting ground, Beast Boy similarly positioned right in front of him while Wildebeest, Jungle Cat, Ambush, Mumbyo, and all the other combat capable people in the village sat in a circle around them.

The shapeshifter nodded his head. "You bet I am." He stared intently at Tawaba, a determined look on his face. "For one, in the event Chang _is_ telling the truth about it, that cure he has for Primetia is very likely my only chance at a permanent solution for it. And even if there isn't a cure, I'm not willingly abandoning my friends; and I'm especially not going to let them be killed in such a horrid fashion as what Chang and his boss have planned for them."

"You are well aware that this is almost certainly intended as a trap for you, my friend?" Mumbyo asked.

"Oh I'd be a fool to think it isn't." Beast Boy looked at his friend. "But trap or no trap, my decision is final. If walking into a trap is what it takes to both get cured and to save my friends, then so be it. And besides, even if my friend's lives weren't on the line, I'd still end up inevitably losing myself to the Rage from Primetia anyway. So at this point, it's either go big or go home, and I'd rather go big."

"I understand." Mumbyo nodded his head. "I just had to be certain you were aware of this detail."

"And for that I am grateful."

"Regardless," said one of the six warriors that served as Tawaba's council. "We will need a plan."

"Well I suppose this meeting we've got going on right now is as good of a time as ever to start planning. So long as we've got a good one thought up to start with in time to make it to the lab before my deadline, I think we should have good reason for hope."

The changeling briefly thought to himself some more, eyebrow raised in concentration. "And now that I think about it, I think I know just the thing to talk about first." He then looked to Tawaba. "You've said that you and the tribe have been committing a lot of raids against the lab lately?"

"That is correct."

"Have any of these raids involved you being right at the area where the main lab is located? Considering how that one appears to be closest to your territory, I have a feeling that, if there's any lab amongst the two in Lamumba that you guys would be most likely to have actually seen in person, it would be that one."

"Indeed true," Tawaba confirmed.

Mumbyo and Nyota nodded their own heads to confirm their father's words. "There's even a relatively hidden clearing a somewhat safe distance away that we've been using as a temporary campsite whenever we've chosen to directly raid the lab itself," Nyota stated.

"She's right," Mumbyo agreed. "And better yet, we've gone there enough times now that we know of an appropriate path to follow that should allow us to reach the clearing with plenty of time to spare."

"Sounds promising," Wildebeest admitted, a happy smile on his face.

"Indeed," said Ambush.

"About how long should it take to reach this clearing?" Jungle Cat asked.

"In the event that we leave within the next half hour," one of the councilman warriors explained, "then as long as we are lucky, haul ass, and none of us get lost, we should all make it there before midnight. At which point, we should have at least enough time to sleep until sunrise tomorrow morning."

Ambush let a toothy grin come on her face. "This may only be the bare bones beginning of a plan," she admitted. "But it's certainly a good start."

"Agreed." Beast Boy looked back at Tawaba. "That in mind, I'm guessing now's a good time for you to tell me about any defenses and such that I should know about?"

Tawaba nodded. "To start," he began. "There is a dangerous beast that lurks around the area immediately outside the gates to the lab's location. An emela ntouka to be more precise."

Beast Boy's eyes widened, and his face paled. The three mutants reacted similarly. "Oh boy," Beast Boy whimpered.

Tawaba nodded his head in agreement. "I take it you are familiar with what I am talking about?"

The changeling nodded, and then pointed his finger at Jungle Cat and Ambush. "These two filled me in earlier today. And trust me, I am definitely not looking forward to actually meeting one in person."

"As well you shouldn't." Tawaba shuddered. "And even in the event you get past that cursed beast, the lab itself is no easy place to access. For one, the entirety of the area in which the main building itself is positioned is surrounded by thick heavy walls made out of some thick earthen material. And they are all smooth enough to make it very difficult to climb over them without assistance. And the various weapons positioned upon the top of these walls likewise make it difficult to get over them at all, whether it be by climbing _or_ by flying. The only immediately intentional means of entry is a pair of thick metal gates, made from a similarly tough metal. There is a device positioned nearby that indicates you have to enter some kind of code in order to open it. And furthermore, from what we've observed, there appears to be some sort of odd force, either via magic or through some obscure function of technology, that is designed to engulf any who directly touch the walls, gate, or even the empty space present when the gates are open in electricity and knock the luckless victims back. We currently presume that this defense is the only thing that prevents the emela ntouka guarding the gate from either charging through the gate when its open or accidentally busting down the gate or walls."

The six councilmen all nodded their heads. "There are no doubt more defenses within the lab itself," one of them explained. "But since none of us have ever successfully gotten past the walls and lived to tell the tale, the outside defenses we've currently mentioned are all we can tell you about at the present time."

"I understand." Beast Boy nodded his head. Then he started thinking to himself some more. "Hmm, this will certainly be difficult." He continued thinking to himself, memorizing every detail that he could of what he'd now been told while also trying to figure out just how to bypass the two defenses he now knew would need to be dealt with. "So there's an erumpent guarding the gate that we'll need to get past somehow," he thought to himself. "And then there's also some heavy-duty walls, and an equally heavy-duty gate, that are all safeguarded by some electro zapper thingy. How to get past all this…how to get past all this…how to get past all this…"

His eyes then narrowed further as he seemed to think of something else. Mumbyo noticed, and then raised his eyebrow. "I know that look," he said. "You've got an idea."

"Sort of," Beast Boy admitted. "It's not exactly much of a plan at the moment though."

"Tell us about it anyway," said Tawaba. "With the current circumstances, any information you have on a potential plan could go a long way."

"If you say so." The changeling took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "You said there was a device that needs to have a code entered into it outside the gate, right?"

"That is correct."

"Then reasonably speaking, there should be a similar device on the other side of the gate."

"That's certainly possible," one of the councilmen admitted. "After all, the lab's occupants would need some way to unlock and open the gates from within the area surrounded by the walls." He then looked to Beast Boy. "May I ask how this information might prove helpful for us?"

"Well in the event that this electrical force you mention is technology based, then odds are it can be deactivated with a specific code similar to the kind you'd have to enter in to unlock and open the gate," Beast Boy explained. "Granted, there would still be the problem of figuring out just what the code in question would be but…"

"You're saying that if we were to figure out this code and somehow make it past the exterior defenses, we could shut down the electrical force surrounding the walls and gate," Mumbyo stated.

"Pretty much," the changeling admitted. "Plus there'd be also be the opportunity to open the gate from within the walls as well." He abruptly paused, a sudden 'Eureka' look on his face as he seemed to think of something else. "Then again," he continued, an unnerving looking grin on his face as he intertwined his fingers together. "If one were to only turn off the invisible zapper defense, we might not even need to open the gate."

Wildebeest gulped, now feeling slightly unnerved by the sight of the look on the shapeshifter's face. Jungle Cat and Ambush similarly looked nervous. "Dare I ask what sort of idea you now have in mind?" The female mutant asked.

Then the mutant facepalmed. "I'm getting ahead of myself," he grumbled. "There'd still need to be a way to get on the other side of the walls in the first place."

"Couldn't you just use the code device already on the outside?" Wildebeest asked.

"No good," Beast Boy responded. "Odds are I'd only end up getting zapped if I even tried to touch it. And that's being optimistic considered I'd also be right out in the open where the erumpent could find me."

The tribespeople raised their eyebrows in confusion at the unfamiliar word.

"Another name for the emela ntouka," Jungle Cat explained. The tribespeople made a silent 'oh' and nodded their heads, now understanding what their friend had been referring to.

"Real pity about all those details to," Ambush stated. "If it weren't for the deflector shields, I'd probably be able to turn invisible and either try to commit trial and error guess work on the outside keypad, or use my claws to climb up the walls and be able to do a similar bout of guess work on the keypad on the other side."

"So I'd definitely need to get over the walls somehow without touching the walls…" Beast Boy's eyes widened, but this time in horror. "And that's assuming…"

"The electrical force doesn't extend that far," Tawaba explained, seemingly realizing just why Beast Boy had suddenly become so horrified. "We've been able to successfully throw our spears over the walls and see them successfully land on the other side without getting blown back by electricity. So long as you don't get shot out of the sky by the weapons installed on the very top of the walls, you could reasonably fly over the walls and land on the other side without too much trouble."

"Oh thank goodness." Beast Boy panted in relief. "I was really starting to get worried for a moment." Then his eyes narrowed. "Are there any security cameras?"

"Ay." Tawaba nodded his head. "Indeed there are.

"Grr," Beast Boy growled. "That could be a problem. If I get seen by one of those, anyone watching from the other end will automatically be alerted to my presence. That could complicate things."

"No kidding," Jungle Cat admitted. "And that's being optimistic considering you could also just as easily end up getting shot right out of the sky by one of the weapons installed on top of the walls instead."

"I may have a way for you to not have to worry about being seen by the cameras."

Beast Boy and the rest of the people gathered looked to N'jobu. The shaman nodded his head. "With the right paint and other necessary materials applied upon you, there is a charm I can cast that will allow you to have a temporary form of natural camouflage granted upon your animal forms when you take their shape."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow in confusion. "Ok…?"

Nyota broke in to explain. "What he means is that, instead of automatically remaining your default color when you transform, you'll temporarily have your animal forms be colored the exact way they'd normally be colored when you transform."

Beast Boy's eyes widened as the implication fully set in. "So you're saying…"

"Ay," said N'jobu. "As long as the paint is unmarred and the charm remains in place, you will temporarily be capable of assuming your animal forms without ending up still being easily recognized by virtue of your natural green color."

"So basically, with this charm, I could just turn into a bird and fly right by the cameras, and anyone watching me would just assume I was an ordinary bird," Beast Boy said.

"Exactly. Though I would recommend you actually act like the bird you'd be in the shape of. Something tells me anyone watching the camera feed would be more than a little suspicious if a seemingly ordinary bird seemed to act rather smug and prideful about the fact that it was just casually flying along within the cameras' sight."

"Understandable." The changeling nodded his head. "You say it's temporary. About how much time would I have?"

"The maximum amount of time I can set for this charm is a single day," N'jobu explained. "Too much more time than that would require far more paint to be applied to you then would likely be considered healthy, let alone capable of allowing you to stay alive while its applied. And as it currently stands, I've currently only got enough of the supplementary material I'd need to apply alongside the paint to allow you an hour's worth of time. I was actually going to go on a supply run tomorrow. But I get the feeling it would be wise to just postpone that until after tomorrow's raid."

"Ok then," Beast Boy admitted. "So I'll basically just have to make that hour you give me count." He nodded his head. "Ok then, so now I have a way over the walls, and a way to do so without having to worry about giving us away in the event I get seen on the cameras while doing so." He thought to himself. "Granted, there's still the matter of finding out just what the code I'll need to enter in actually is. But I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there."

"A wise thought," said Tawaba. "For now, it is indeed best that we focus on the matters that we have a reasonable chance of figuring out at this point in time."

"And that in mind," Wildebeest broke in, now directing a rather meaningful look towards Beast Boy. "Perhaps now would be a good time to tell us just what you had in mind when you mentioned earlier about possibly not even needing to figure out the gate code if you managed to shut down that deflector shield?"

"Ay," Mumbyo agreed. "I am very curious myself about that matter now that you mention it."

Beast Boy directed his gaze towards Mumbyo, that same unnerving grin from before back on his face. "I take it you all are familiar with what happens to anything that gets stabbed by an erumpent's horn?"

"Now that we are aware of how that is another name for the emela ntouka, yes." Tawaba nodded his head. "And it does not at all sound like a pleasant fate."

"Well answer me this, would that kind of thing still happen if an erumpent were to stab something like a rock or tree?"

"Yes." Tawaba raised his eyebrow. "Are you suggesting…?"

"Yep." Beast Boy nodded his head, grin still on his face. "I'm thinking that, if I could somehow get the erumpent to charge right at the gate or one of the walls immediately after I get the deflector shields shut off, and in the process get lucky enough for the erumpent to end up stabbing its horn right through the chosen target spot, we could at the very least end up blowing a gaping hole for all of us to enter through, or destroy the gate _and_ the entirety of the walls all in one go at the very most."

Ambush whistled. "Talk about making an entrance."

Jungle Cat, however, still looked uncertain. "And what would stop the erumpent from still being able to continue rampaging around and going after us afterward? There's no guarantee that the resulting explosion will knock it out or that it will be similarly put out of commission by any rubble. Seriously, with how resilient those things are to a large amount of weapons and other forms of attack, you'd need a miracle for it to be taken out that easily."

Beast Boy thought to himself. "Hmm, an unfortunately good point…" Then his face took on yet another 'Eureka' look. "Then again…"

"Oh," Wildebeest whistled, now sounding excited. "What have you thought of now? What have you thought of now? What have you thought of now?"

The rest of the gathered group likewise directed intrigued looks the changeling's way. Beast Boy nodded his head. Then he looked at Jungle Cat. "You and Ambush," he stated. "Have you ever managed to explore the area around the main lab?"

"The lion mutant raised his eyebrow. "We have. Why do you ask?"

"I must agree," said Ambush. "How would our doing so be of help here?"

"Are there any large animals you know of living near the area?" Beast Boy asked. "Or more specifically, anything that could perhaps do battle with an erumpent?"

The two feline mutants thought carefully to themselves. "Well there aren't any nundus living close enough to this erumpent's 'territory' to be of easy use," they thought to themselves. "But there might be…"

Their eyes widened, and they both raised a claw with clear 'Eureka' looks on their faces. "There might be something living close enough that we could lure in for that purpose."

"And what might that be?" Tawaba asked.

The feline mutants looked to Beast Boy. "Remember that kasai-rex that you and Wildebeest encountered yesterday when you first met us?"

"I do."

As he said this, Wildebeest hurriedly drew a picture in the ground of the creature in question for the benefit of the tribespeople, whom he had a feeling knew the beast by a somewhat different name. They all nodded their heads in appreciation as he pointed at the drawing to indicate that the subject of it was what his allies were referring to.

"Well from what we remember of our own explorations of the area," Jungle Cat explained. "It currently has its lair set up within inches of one of the borders to the area that the erumpent guarding the lab is currently using as its own territory."

"And it's not alone," Ambush added. She nodded her head. "It has a mate as well."

"So there's two of those things in the area?" Beast Boy smiled. "Even better. With two of them possibly fighting against that erumpent, it will almost certainly be far too busy to deal with us. And maybe if I'm lucky, I could even allow that fight to be a means to help cause the erumpent to stab the gate or walls in the first place."

"We're still gonna need to figure out just how to get the kasai-rex to come over," Wildebeest pointed out.

"The animal child is right," said N'jobu. "Not to mention, a way to guarantee that the emela ntouka will still be able stab the desired area while in the midst of fighting those two other beasts."

The changeling thought to himself some more. "Well, I may have a possible idea on how to make sure this part of the plan will in fact be possible," he eventually stated. He pointed his finger against his head. "I might need to have a little talk with my…um…tenants if you will…in order to confirm whether or not this will truly be possible. But if it does prove possible, then we might very well have everything we need figured out apart from the code."

"And that, as you have said," Mumbyo stated, a grin on his face as he nodded his head, "a bridge to cross when we get to it."

Beast Boy let a similar grin come on his own face. "Exactly."

"I certainly hope then that your tenants are willing to talk," Ambush stated, air quoting 'tenants' in the process.

"Me to," Beast Boy admitted, now gulping slightly as he remembered just how all his animal forms apart from the Beast were currently being affected by the Primetia. "Granted, they've all seemed surprisingly quiet ever since that chat I had with the Beast this afternoon. But I can't tell if that's a good sign or not."

"Regardless," N'jobu stated. "My king and I have prepared something else for you that might help provide you with perhaps even the tiniest bit of extra time for this alleged cure to successfully relieve you of your illness."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow, and then looked to Tawaba, who drew out what appeared to some sort of talisman attached to a string. "This is a specifically designed talisman blessed by N'jobu," the chieftain king explained. "More specifically, it is designed as a means of keeping negative energy at bay."

The changeling raised his eyebrow, and so did the three mutants. "What's that supposed to mean?" Jungle Cat asked in confusion.

"Typically, this kind of talisman is used as a means of warding off curses, malevolent possessing spirits, or similar threats and unpleasant elements that are demonic or magical in nature," Mumbyo explained. He took a look at his father. "In fact, these talismans are largely most effective and likely to succeed when used specifically for those types of threats."

"Indeed." Tawaba nodded his head. "But since, with the knowledge we now have of the mystical side of Sakutia and Primetia, there might be just enough negative energy involved for this talisman to provide at least a tiny degree of extra defense."

All the assembled warriors and similarly combat capable people looked to Beast Boy, who thought to himself, and then nodded his head. "I suppose it could be worth a try."

"Understand this," said N'jobu. "This is not, by any means, a permanent solution. If this were the work of a demon, curse, or similar problem of the type that a talisman like this is usually used against, then you'd at least be capable of wearing it as long as you wanted without ever having to worry about the disease ever again. And even if that were the case, you'd still have to worry about the disease's effects not only returning, but also potentially unleashing a drastically stronger and more negative outburst of its power upon return depending on just how long you were wearing the talisman around your neck prior to its removal. And as it stands, the best we can hope for regarding this talisman is that it will at least extend the time you have to receive a more permanent cure before the internal deadline Primetia has set in you is reached."

"Well however much time it gives me," Beast Boy stated, a determined look once again on his face while his right hand clenched into a fist. "I'll just have to make it count." He nodded his head and directed a thankful look at Tawaba and the shaman. "And for this, I thank you."

Tawaba nodded, a fatherly look or pride on his face as he handed the talisman over to the changeling. "You are most welcome, my friend."

"Agreed." N'jobu nodded his head. "I wish there were more I could give you. In fact, if I had the time and materials, there is a large variety of shamanistic items and charms that I could bestow upon you for this coming raid to go alongside this talisman and the camouflage paint."

"It's alright dude." Beast Boy nodded his head at the shaman, a clear look of appreciation on his face. "Trust me, what you're able to give me now make perfectly good enough gifts in their own right. And hey, if this whole business tomorrow succeeds, I'll could very well get the chance to try out some of those other things you've just mentioned on a future visit or so."

N'jobu smiled. "Now that certainly sounds like something to look forward to."

"Indeed." Tawaba stood to full height. "Regardless, about when do you plan to make your hopeful discussion you mentioned with the Beast and the rest of your animal forms?"

The entire group looked at the shapeshifter once more. "I think I'll wait till after we arrive at that clearing you say you've been using as a campsite for all the other times you've directly raided the main lab. After all, even in the event that I'm able to successfully have it with them, it could take a while, though hopefully not too long to prevent me from having a sufficient amount of sleep."

"Then let us swiftly make what further preparations we can," Tawaba stated. He lifted his staff skyward towards the roof of the structure they were positioned under. "And within the next few minutes, let us be on our way! For tonight, on the very same day that our lost brother Garfield Logan has returned to us and been accepted as an honorary member of this tribe, a foul enemy of his has captured four of his other closest friends from outside this tribe, and has revealed tonight that he now plans to subject these very same friends to a vile and inhuman death in the event that Garfield does not concede to his demands tomorrow! We will not accept this! Not at all! Tonight, this enemy of Garfield's has declared an act of war against him and our tribe! So tonight, let us travel in preparation for making right these great wrongs!"

The rest of the warriors and similarly combat capable tribespeople raised their fists and spears, all of them letting out a loud cheer of triumph and anticipation in unison. Even Beast Boy raised his own left fist and joined in with the cheer. And as if to further add to the atmosphere now around them, Wildebeest proceeded to lift his head towards the roof of the structure and emit a reverberating wildebeest-like bellow while Jungle Cat and Ambush raised their clawed hands, bared their fangs, and unleashed earth shaking triumphant roars. There was no doubt about it now. Regardless of what happened in the future soon to come, Beast Boy, the three mutants, and the tribe were ready for what they now planned to do. And nothing short of death would stop them.

. . . . .

"I still wish we didn't have to wait until 12:00 noon tomorrow to gas those four goody goodies."

The two men amongst the Wildebeest Society's four chief scientists groaned, rolling their eyes in irritation. "You heard what the boss and his old associate we owed a favor to said," the Caucasian man grumbled.

"Their orders were clear," the bearded middle eastern man agreed. "The prisoners are to stay alive until at least that time tomorrow. And whether or not they'll even still be allowed to get killed at that time in the event the shapeshifter shows up is still up in the air."

The Latina grumbled under breath, rolling her eyes to Heaven with a fiery irritation in her gaze. "It's just so boring having to wait," she hissed. "You know how much I enjoy watching the test subjects marked for death when they die."

"And you're one of the ones trusted enough by the boss to be amongst his top four highest ranking underlings alongside us," said the Caucasian man.

The Latina narrowed her eyes and glared at her colleague. "For your information, dumbass, I specifically said I enjoy watching the subjects _specifically marked for death_ die. I'm still perfectly capable of creating and sustaining life."

"Just not of nurturing it," the middle eastern man grunted.

The Latina directed her glare towards the other man. "This again? Good grief let it go already! It was just another project; nothing more, nothing less. And the sooner you and everyone else in this crazy cult realizes this and comes around to my way of thinking, the better. And hey, at least I'm actually still doing my job. That's certainly more than can be said about Goldilocks." She then gestured vaguely around the entire computer room that she and her two colleagues were currently sitting and looking over their notes from the current day inside, her face still making clear her distaste for the blonde that served as the fourth member of their little group. "Where is she right now? Hell if I know. Honestly, it's a miracle she still hasn't yet been used as a Primetia test subject! And I wouldn't be at all surprised if she turns out to be just messing around, or looking through images of her chump husband and useless whiny brats, or similarly acting like the useless waste of space she is…"

"For your information, idiot…"

The three chief scientists turned their heads, eyes now widened and faces blanched, just in time to see none other than their now seemingly rather annoyed leader standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, and a stern glare on his face as his eyes narrowed towards them. "I have just finished sending that 'useless waste of space' off on a very important task." He walked calmly, but tensely, into the room, his eyes still remaining narrowed as he kept his gaze focused solely on the now quite chastened and nervous looking Latina.

"Specifically, I have currently sent her out with two of our finest Wildebeest hybrid soldiers to see if she can successfully seek out the location of wherever it is that those savages set up camp whenever they directly raid this very lab," the Wildebeest Society leader explained coolly, all while his eyes still burned hatefully towards the one they now gazed towards. "And if she succeeds, then I'm perfectly willing to consider this a final passed test for her to have before I give her the promotion that I've been thinking of giving her for a while now." He nodded his head. "Specifically, I'm considering promoting her to the position of chief project overseer." He glared once more at the Latina. "The very position you yourself currently hold."

The two male chief scientists whistled silently. Then they directed a glance at the now immensely stunned Latina, who gaped incredulously at their shared boss.

"My position?!" She yelled, her raspy voice briefly turning considerably shriller in her shock and rage. "You must be joking!"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Well you have to be joking!" The Latina pointed her finger straight at her boss, her eyes blazing with rage. "For all the years I've served you alongside these two blokes and that cow you're now daring to consider putting in my current position, I have been nothing but loyal! And the fact that you're currently willing to repay me for all that by demoting me in favor of that airhead is unacceptable!"

"Airhead? What a grossly inaccurate way to describe your colleague." The Wildebeest Society leader shook his head side to side. "In truth, she is actually very smart indeed, as is fitting for one amongst my four top scientists. In fact, from the evidence displayed in recent times, as well as other evidence from past experiences I've come to realize the existence of thanks to hindsight, I daresay that she might very well have proven herself lately to be even smarter than you yourself are."

"That's impossible," the Latina hissed, scandalized by the very idea that her boss had just suggested.

"Oh really? Then how is it that, despite you're being the one who carried out the process, _she_ was the one who actually thought up the specific method we used to successfully create Project Baby Wildebeest when you were still ranting and raving about wanting to go out and kidnap an already preexisting baby or child to subject to the mutation ray?"

"You know how I tend to be like a bulldog when it comes to the ideas I think up! I just needed a little time to be calmed down…"

"How is it that _she's_ the one who thought up the idea of actually going out and searching for that pesky tribe to see if she could help put a stop to their irksome raids while you were constantly busy eating popcorn and drinking sodas while watching the end results that befell the Primetia test subjects?"

"That is a vile exaggeration of my behavior and you know it! I've been plenty busy on important stuff when I'm not amongst the audience for the Primetia tests…"

"And for that matter, why is it that _she's_ the only one between the two of you who seems to actually care about the well-being and best interests of the society while you lately seem to care too much about advancing your own career and putting such an element above this entire organization?"

At this point, the Latina was sputtering and hissing incoherently as she desperately tried to figure out an appropriate response or defense, all while the ginger haired Wildebeest Society leader continued glaring at her, the middle eastern man shook his head side to side, and the Caucasian man seemed to be struggling not to laugh at his colleague's expense. The leader snorted, and then shook his head side to side. "I will admit, you have done a lot of good for the society in your years as chief project overseer," he grudgingly stated. "But ever since the successful birth of Project Baby Wildebeest, it has only become more and more clear to me over the last five years since how you may very well have been not completely as suitable for the role as I used to believe. You've allowed your status to go entirely to your head and inflate your ego to the point that not only do you have to be practically strong-armed into taking part in certain projects by virtue of your rank, but have also both shown a dangerously lax and uncaring attitude towards the projects that you don't partake in willingly as well as to focus almost entirely on whatever projects you wish to do instead of what's best for the Wildebeest Society. Hell, there are several problems that you could have easily helped us solve lately if you even bothered to try to work to think up solutions instead of your precious work that can only be considered mere side projects in comparison to the bigger picture!"

The Latina clenched her fists and hung her head, too simultaneously angry and saddened by what her boss had now said to respond in any other way.

"But fortunately, for now you still have a chance of at least maintaining some degree of good will from me."

The leader nodded his head. "For as it so happens, your most recently finished project, unlike all the others you've worked on lately, actually shows signs of potentially making life easier for us immediately in the current circumstances."

Immediately after he said this, the sound of footsteps coming to a stop was heard right outside the open doorway that led into the computer room where the leader and three of his top scientists were currently positioned. The four high ranking Wildebeest Society members turned their heads towards the doorway just in time to see four pairs of solid white glowing eyes positioned within the darkness of the corridor that the doorway led out into. This same darkness obscured every part of the four beings outside apart from their eyes. But it didn't stop their rather animalistic looking shadows from extending past the doorway and into the computer room from where they stood. For a brief moment, complete silence filled the air as the four mysterious beings stayed positioned outside the computer room while allowing only their eyes and shadows to be visible to the four humans. At the same time, the Wildebeest Society leader directed a mild look of intrigue and pleasure at the sight, the dark haired Caucasian scientist and the middle eastern man directed a somewhat nervous glance at each other, and the Latina directed a wolf-like maniacal grin towards the entrance to the computer room.

"You'll have no worries in this regard," the Latina purred as she continued grinning pridefully at the four pairs of glowing white eyes. "Trust me, in the coming days, you'll have no reason at all to regret agreeing to my suggestion to have the remaining assets for Project Menagerie transferred here from the sister location and placed under my tender care. And I daresay that this alone will be enough to ensure that nothing goes wrong tomorrow."

"For your sake, you'd better hope that proves the case." The leader nodded his head and directed another glare at the Latina. "Because I can assure you; I was not kidding when I said that all your hopes of still even staying alive right now, let alone still being amongst my inner circle even if your currently absent colleague ends up succeeding in her little test and taking your position as chief project overseer, are riding entirely on the success of this project. If anything goes wrong tomorrow, involving these four remaining Project Menagerie subjects or otherwise, and you do not end up dying in some other way over the course of the immediate aftermath, than you _will_ be one of the next to be placed within those domes after our current prisoners have undergone their testing."

"Oh trust me boss," the Latina purred, too proud now of her own success that the boss had just brought up to care about the threat he'd just sent her way. "Nothing will go wrong now that I've allowed us to finally have complete proper control over these four at least." She turned her grinning gaze back to the doorway. "Isn't that right my pets?"

For a brief second, the four hidden beings seemed hesitant to respond, two of them even narrowing their eyes and snarling, all as the solid white light in all four pairs of eyes started to briefly flicker and show signs of their natural color as the beings seemingly tried to fight and break free of some sort of control. The sight of this caused the Latina's eyes to narrow, a cold and hateful of contempt now in them. "I said…" She abruptly drew out what appeared to be some sort of trigger device. "ISN'T THAT RIGHT?!" She then growled as she pressed a large red button on the top end of the device.

In a flash, the sound of crackling voltage filled the air as the four beings were suddenly subjected to a violent electrical shock. The four beings in question reacted in obvious fashion, a hollow reptilian snarling, a keening wolf-like howling, a deep and throaty bellowing, and a vicious bear-like roaring filling the air as the four still not fully seen beings screamed in agony, complete with all 8 eyes widening in shock and pain as the brilliant glowing white light started to fully refill them and return to full strength once more.

The Latina eventually removed her finger from the button and allowed the apparent electrocution to end, at which point the four still unseen beings seemed to crumple onto their hands and knees, panting, coughing, and gasping while still remaining hidden within the darkness of the corridor immediately outside the computer room. Then the four beings' heads seemed to lift back up into an appropriate position, all four pairs of eyes indeed back to glowing a solid white. "Yes master," they all stated in unison, their voices in a dull monotone.

**And just like that, another chapter done! I ****_REALLY_**** hope you all like what I have to offer with this chapter, especially after the long wait! And boy do I like what I wrote for this chapter, and hope you to enjoy reading about the celebration, the heavily hinted exaggerated and hammed up stories Beast Boy was said to have been telling the village children, the ceremony where Beast Boy was finally officially named an honorary member of the tribe, the phone call with Chang and the information revealed over the course of it (namely EXACTLY what the four captive Titans at the lab are at risk of undergoing if Beast Boy doesn't arrive to save them), the meeting and planning for the upcoming raid, the revelations of Jungle Cat and Ambush's names, and also the further in-depth (relatively speaking) exposition on their history and four friends (all of them OCs of mine just like Jungle Cat, Ambush, and the dead and departed gorilla mutant codenamed Curious George) still under the Wildebeest Society's custody. And speaking of that last detail, feel free to take a wild (pun intended) guess as to just who those four pairs of solid white glowing eyes belonged to at the end of this chapter ;). And furthermore, if you're still reading this Eris, I do hope you like how I chose to incorporate your idea of camouflage granting paint, the implicit nod I made to some of the other suggestions you made for helpful mystical items and whatnot from the tribe, and that shaman blessed talisman that Beast Boy now has to hopefully provide even more temporary additional defense against Primetia prior to him hopefully getting that cure. Plus, just to make you extra happy, a bunch of your remaining questions from your review of chapter 12 are currently planned to have explicit answers revealed in the very next chapter! Sound awesome? I certainly hope so! That in mind, I once again hope you all enjoyed what I had to offer with this new chapter and that you leave plenty of feedback (remember, an exact MINIMUM of one review is required for specifically this current chapter before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted). Fair warning, the next two chapters will probably be pretty long as a result of what I've got planned for them. So try not be too impatient. I promise I'll get them done and ready as fast as I can. And all that said, see you later everyone!**

**Coming up Next: After a lucky turn of events that allow them all to gain the last of the information they need for their plans, Beast Boy and his ragtag army of allies are ready to initiate their planned epic raid against the main upper Lamumban Wildebeest Society lab. How shall it all unfold from there? Find out next time everybody!**


	16. Animal Power

**Hey everyone! Hope you all haven't lost faith in me (and are looking forward to this year's 4th of July in some way or other despite current unpleasantness going on), because here's a new chapter! And fair warning in advance, this chapter is a bit long and has a decent amount going on, so please keep that in mind and try not to rush. In this new chapter, after an unexpected extra stroke of luck that allows the raiding party to gain some incredibly useful additional information for them to know about during their planned attack on the Wildebeest Society's main lab facility in Upper Lamumba, plus an equally useful chat between Beast Boy and the Beast during the night before said lucky turn of events, the time has come to set the plan in motion! But just how will things go on this epic escapade? Get ready to read, hopefully enjoy, and find out dudes and dudettes!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. And while I may at the very least potentially own the idea of the beast being an 'in-universe' explanation for the emela-ntouka cryptid, neither do I own the idea of the erumpent. And furthermore, several phrases and terminology words used by some of the animals in this chapter (amongst Beast Boy's forms or otherwise) are either directly borrowed from or at the very least inspired by similar language conventions used in ****_The Land Before Time_**** and Erin Hunter's ****_Bravelands_**** book series. And with all that said, onward with the fic everybody!**

**Chapter 15:**

**Animal Power**

The blonde Wildebeest Society chief scientist carefully made her way through the jungles outside the lab, her eyes narrowed in concentration as she did so. "There'd better be something out here to make my current travels worth the trouble," she grumbled under her breath. She had to admit, considering it was now about an hour or so past midnight, she was not at all amused by how her boss had insisted that she spend at least _three_ hours after midnight continuing her search if she hadn't already found anything by midnight, just to be safe, prior to returning to the main lab.

The two wildebeest hybrids accompanying her paused, grunting in apparent concern. She waved at them as if to reassure them. "I'm alright," she said. "We can keep going." Seemingly mollified for the time being, the two hybrids resumed their movements through the jungle, their scientist handler following along stoically behind them. "Just grin and bear it," she thought to herself. "As long as I either find signs of the tribe at a possible campsite for their raids, or at least can confirm that we're safe and don't need to expect another raid from them yet in the near future, everything will be fine. And not only that, but the boss and everyone else in the Society will continue to have no reason to go after my family…"

The relative silence was split with what appeared to be the sound of a lion's roar. The wo wildebeest hybrids briefly paused, grunting nervously in apparent fear. Their natural wildebeest instincts were enough to give them a very real fear of lions, as these were amongst the natural predators of wildebeests. She tried her best to reassure them, despite even she herself being well aware of just how close in proximity to their location the roar had appeared to be.

But then, all of a sudden, a lion lunged out from the shadows directly in front of her and the two hybrids. Or, more accurately, a humanoid lion-like mutant wearing a pair of long tattered blue jeans. The creature roared, its red eyes seeming to glow solid and pupilless in the darkness and its teeth like daggers. The wildebeest hybrids reared back, bellowing in terror at this great monster that now crouched before them and roared for their blood and flesh. Even the blonde human scientist with them couldn't help but step back, eyes wide and face pale from fear.

"This creature," she thought to herself. "This is one of the two still missing Project Menagerie subjects…" Briefly forgetting the severity of the situation, she started trying to dig into her cloak pocket for her communicator. "I have to tell the others," she thought to herself. "I have to…"

The sound of another roar, this one sounding even louder and more forceful than before, drew the scientist's attention back to the current situation, just in time for her eyes to widen in shock and horror as one of the two wildebeest hybrids was sent rocketing backward by a gigantic burst of noise waves spewing from the lion mutant's mighty jaws, trickles of blood spouting out of its ears, nose, and eyes as it screamed in pain from the merciless attack. Its cries of pain only ceased when it pounded against a nearby tree, an ominous crack filling the air. Then the hybrid crumpled to the ground, dead as a doornail.

The scientist gaped in shock and horror at how one of her guards for this assignment had just now been so brutally killed. Then she heard panicked grunting from her left and vicious growling from in front of her. She looked ahead, and promptly gulped at the hateful look that she now saw Project Jungle Cat sending her way. The mutant snarled, his fangs gleaming like the weapons they were, and he lifted his right hand, claws extending to full length as his tail swished side to side in a threatening fashion. Trying desperately not to visibly gulp, she directed a side glance towards her remaining guard, her heart sinking at the sight of the panicked look on its face as it quivered and whimpered at the sight of what it was conditioned to fear without question.

But then its eyes widened, an alerted grunt escaping its throat as it abruptly tensed up. Then, without warning, its head and neck suddenly seemed to turn a complete 90-degree angle with a sickening crack…seemingly without anything touching it. The scientist stepped backwards, shrieking reflexively in shock as she dug for a small pistol she kept in one of the pockets of her cloak, hoping despite her combined fear of both Project Jungle Cat and whatever unseen threat had just now killed her 2nd guard that it would prove of use to her in getting out of the situation alive. But no sooner had she drawn out the gun when an invisible force suddenly struck her wrist and caused her to drop the pistol before she'd even had a chance to load it. Still trying her best not to panic, she managed to draw out her communicator, only for another invisible force to yank it out of her hands and throw it towards Project Jungle Cat, who grabbed it in his right paw, somehow managing not to stab it with his claws or crush it in his grip.

At this point, the scientist found herself desperately stepping backwards, her face clearly showing her distress as she thought desperately to try to figure out something to do. She was so focused on her desperate attempts at figuring out a way to fight or escape that she didn't even feel the brief wind displacement of something large jumping right over her, or the soft barely audible noise of a large creature managing to land behind her with an unexpected silent grace. Then she suddenly felt herself get grabbed from behind by an invisible force!

"Wha…?" The scientist managed to scream, her green eyes widened in shock as she felt the invisible force that had grabbed her coiling around her torso and pinning her arms to her sides, before another invisible force suddenly came into existence against her mouth, holding it shut. "MMMPPPHHH!"

No sooner was the scientist thus subdued when she then noticed the area where the invisible force was present seeming to flicker as if a hologram were coming into view. And within seconds, it was revealed just what the invisible force actually was when the flickering stopped and the scientist was able to finally get a clear look at the strong, yet feminine, golden yellow furred and black striped arm that was pinning her own arms to her sides and the similarly yellow furred thick paw that was tightly clamped over her mouth.

"Nice try lady."

The scientist managed to direct a glance behind her, green eyes widened in horrified recognition at the sight of the furry, fanged, and yellow eyed face of none other than Project Ambush, the second still missing subject of Project Menagerie. "HHHMMMPPPHHH!" She howled.

The humanoid tigress sneered, tossed her own golden blonde hair over her shoulder, and hissed at her captive. "But if you think you could sneak up on Jungle Cat and I, not to mention our allies camping alongside us, and especially with those two loud guards we just killed with you, then you're really too arrogant for your own good, even by Wildebeest Society standards."

The captured scientist's eyes widened again. "They heard us?!" She thought to herself. "But how?! I was being so careful…"

"You really didn't think we'd notice?" Project Ambush hissed, a disgusted tone to her voice. She shook her head. "Sure, you may have been moving pretty stealthily, but my sense of hearing and smell is a lot better than that of you humans. And even if that weren't the case, those two ninnyhammer guards of yours left a lot to be desired when it comes to stealth. Seriously, those two walking sacks of ground beef made enough noise to alert a deaf old granny!"

The scientist's heart sank. "I should have known that would be a problem," she thought bitterly to herself. "I should have tried harder to get them to be quiet. And now they're dead, and I'm at the mercy of two escaped former projects and their apparent allies…" Her eyes widened. "Wait, allies?! Who have they allied with?!" Then her face blanched, seemingly almost literally white over Project Ambush's paw blocking her mouth, as she thought of an especially unpleasant possibility. "That raiding tribe," she thought to herself. "Or worse yet, Baby Wildebeest and the missing shapeshifter. Have they…?"

"What should we do with her Jungle Cat? Should I kill her?"

The scientist tensed up, whimpering helplessly behind Ambush's paw against her mouth, her eyes on the verge of tears in a mixture of terror and despair. "No," she thought to herself. "I can't die, not like this. And not while my kids still haven't even finished elementary school…"

Jungle Cat stepped into view, directing a cold look the scientist's way. The captive scientist shivered in fear from within Ambush's grasp as Jungle Cat looked her over, seemingly considering carefully over his decision on how to respond to his companion's question. Then a wide toothy grin appeared on the lion mutant's face. "I have a better idea," he purred, his tone making it seem as if this 'better idea' would not necessarily make the captured scientist feel that much better.

. . . . .

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow, intrigued by the news he'd just heard. "We have a hostage now you say?"

It was now morning in the area where he, his mutant allies, and the tribe had set up camp. The previous evening's travels had gone well, the talisman around his neck so far appeared to be successfully serving its currently intended purpose, and he had also managed to gather some good information from the Beast the previous night as well; while asleep! And from what Jungle Cat and Ambush were now telling him, it seemed clear that they now had the opportunity to gather further information that could prove even more helpful.

Ambush nodded her head. "Indeed," she confirmed. "Captured her last night. She was wandering near the camp last night alongside two of those walking meat sacks the Wildebeest Society have solidified their name with. We killed both guards, and I was willing to kill her as well. But after Jungle Cat informed me of how useful she could be to us alive, not to mention after I calmed down sufficiently enough later to remember just who she was, I'm very glad now that I didn't."

"MMHH-MMPPHH-MMHH!"

Beast Boy briefly raised his eyebrow at the sound of this muffled grunting coming from a few feet or so behind him. He turned his head to look in that direction, his eyes narrowing when he caught sight of what appeared to be a large boulder positioned as if plugged into a large hole in the ground near a particularly large tree. He then looked back at Ambush and Jungle Cat, eyebrow raised inquisitively. The two feline mutants chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the backs of their heads. "Yeah," Jungle Cat said. "That would be the hostage."

Beast Boy took another look at the boulder plugging up the area that was now apparently serving as a makeshift cell for the new hostage, thinking carefully to himself as he considered this new information. Then he looked back at the two mutants.

"So," he managed to say. "Just who is she exactly? Because I get the feeling she's both somebody important and someone you two apparently have some degree of familiarity with."

"You could say that."

Beast Boy looked to Wildebeest, who nodded his head. Jungle Cat and Ambush had already explained to him and the tribe about this matter earlier that morning before Beast Boy himself had woken up and joined them. "Her name is Amanda Rookwood. She's one of the Wildebeest Society's four top scientists after the leader."

"That is correct," said Tawaba. He nodded his head. "And according to what your feline friends have told us, she is apparently what the people of America would call a real 'family woman'. Reportedly, she has a husband and two children that are still living in America while she's here in our land."

Ambush and Jungle Cat nodded again. "We managed to learn all this over the course of our time as Wildebeest Society captives thanks to using a little system George had set up to allow us to eavesdrop," Ambush explained. "This scientist we've now kidnapped? She may love her work, but she loves her family a lot more. And her two kids mean the world to her."

"Indeed," Jungle Cat agreed. "In fact, she reportedly wanted to back out of working for the Wildebeest Society after her second child was born due to how she supposedly kept imagining her own children in the place of some of the test subjects. But she's still putting up with the Wildebeest Society to this day because her boss and colleagues have threatened to go after her family and either capture or kill them in the event she tries to walk out on or betray them."

"He's not wrong," Wildebeest chimed in. "In fact, before Pantha came into the picture, there were actually a couple times she took a turn at taking care of me and at least tried to make things somewhat better for me."

Beast Boy thought to himself. "Interesting," he said out loud. He looked back at Ambush and Jungle Cat. "So basically, not everyone amongst the Wildebeest Society staff is a happy camper, or completely heartless?"

"That's one way to put it," said Ambush.

"Ay," Tawaba agreed. "And what's more, with this one in particular now in our custody, we now have a means to both figure out the code we need to shut off the thunder bolt barrier, but also gain knowledge about any extra defenses we might have to deal with from within the walls and main laboratory."

Beast Boy and the rest of the gathered makeshift 'army' all nodded their heads in agreement. "That is true," Beast Boy admitted. "Granted, we'll just need to figure out _how_ to get her to give that information. I mean, even if she doesn't quite like working for them, she might yet have still had it heavily ingrained into her mind that betraying them would be a bad move on her part. So we'll need to give her some especially good incentive to want to tell us the information we still need."

At this point, Jungle Cat and Ambush looked each other in the eyes, and then back at Beast Boy. "Well we do have an idea of a bluff we could use to get her to talk," said Jungle Cat.

"Indeed," Ambush agreed. "But fair warning, you'll be just as glad as we are that this is only intended to be a bluff threat."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

. . . . .

"MMMMPPPPHHHH!" Amanda Rookwood screamed as she struggled to get free. As much as she'd despaired at the idea of getting killed by Ambush the previous night, her current situation was only better by the slimmest of margins. She was currently imprisoned in a surprisingly spacious burrow-like cavern under the roots of a large tree, where she'd just had to spend the entire remainder of the night as well as the entirety of the time that had passed for the current morning. Her hands and arms were tied tightly behind her back by three thick vines binding her wrists, elbows, and upper arms together. Her feet and legs were likewise bound together with another three thick vines around her ankles, knees, and thighs. And for the most humiliating detail, a large thick leaf with immensely foul-tasting sticky sap slathered across one side was plastered over her mouth, gagging her, and reducing her voice to animalistic muffled grunts and squeaks.

"LLD MHH GGMMHH!" She shrieked, her eyes closed shut in rage over her humiliating sticky leaf gag as she continued to thrash and writhe against the vines binding her. "LLD MHH GGMMHH!"

She could hear her captors talking with their allies. But thanks to both a massive boulder plugging up the single entrance and exit to the burrow, the thickness of the cavern's dusty earthen walls and ceiling, and the distance between her and the ones holding her prisoner, she couldn't quite make out exactly what they were saying. But whatever they were talking about, they were currently quite clearly paying no mind to their bucking and grunting captive. "Grr," she growled, her green eyes now narrowed angrily over her sticky leaf gag and fists clenched behind her back. It was already bad enough that she'd now been kidnapped, but she was now also being forced to wait and be ignored in what, as far as she knew, was possibly an attempt to psyche her out and fall victim to her own fear and imagination over the possibilities of what her captors had in mind for her. And as if that weren't enough, she was also both angry and in despair over how her boss and colleagues would likely react if they found out about what had now happened to her. She'd been trusted with a very important task the previous night, and she'd agreed to take part in it, even if only to ensure the continued safety of herself and her family. But instead of succeeding, she'd been caught off guard, gotten two of the Wildebeest Society's best hybrid soldiers killed, and was now stuck in a burrow, bound, gagged, and reduced to a helpless prisoner of the very enemies she'd been sent out to investigate. Needless to say, she was not happy. And so she eventually resumed her struggling, writhing against her bonds while shrieking like a muzzled lioness through the thick leaf blocking her mouth.

Eventually, while taking a brief break from her struggles, panting and gasping through her nose, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the spot where she lay. "Hmpf…mhphmf?" Amanda grunted, eyebrow raised as she heard somebody approach, half nervous and half intrigued as she wondered just who was now coming.

The footsteps came to a stop directly in front of the other side of the boulder. "This had better work," said a high-pitched, yet strangely vicious sounding, male voice. "Because if she doesn't tell us what we want, then things are going to have to get seriously ugly."

"Mmpphhff?" The scientist squeaked, green eyes widened and face pale over her sticky leaf muzzle. "What's going on?" She thought to herself nervously, understandably frightened by the various unpleasant possibilities that now popped in her mind at the knowledge of them now apparently having something quite vile planned to get threatened against her. "What are they about to do to me?" All of a sudden, the boulder was grabbed and wrenched from its position. She barely even had a chance to fully register this fact before she then felt a pair of strong furry hands grip her bound ankles and very abruptly yank her out of her makeshift cell.

"HHHMMMPPPHH!" She shrieked as she was very swiftly and roughly dragged out of the burrow and into the outside clearing. Her eyes briefly closed in a reflexive wince at the sudden exposure to the bright sunlight. She opened her eyes just in time to see Ambush grab onto one end of the sticky leaf gagging her before then very abruptly ripping it away from her mouth. She reflexively gasped the instant her mouth was free before she then started coughing and sputtering from the lingering vile taste of the infernal tree sap that had allowed the leaf to serve as such an affective gag. "Eugh," she grunted. "You have no idea how disgusting that tasted," she then said, briefly forgetting the fact that she was technically a hostage to the people she was now for some reason trying to make small talk with.

"Too bad," said the voice she'd heard speaking before. She turned her head in time to see none other than the very shapeshifter her boss's old associate was now imprisoning and threatening the friends of back at the lab. And she promptly gulped at the sight of the very unnervingly angry look on his green face. At that moment, Beast Boy's green eyes were narrowed in a way that, combined with the frown on his face accentuated by the single sharp fang sticking out of his mouth as well as the sunlight seeming to cause his chartreuse blonde hair to literally sparkle like an emerald, made him look very menacing and dangerous indeed even though he was currently still in only his human form.

The shapeshifter nodded his head at the sight of the unnerved look on the scientist's face. "You're scared," he growled, his high-pitched voice still sounding unnaturally scary in his current apparent mood. "Good." He slowly took off his right-hand glove, allowing the scientist a good look at his now bare right hand just in time to see the sunlight cause the tips of his claw-like fingernails to shine unnervingly. The scientist blanched. Already she was not liking the implications her apparent interrogator was now giving off.

And as it soon turned out, the one currently interrogating her wasn't the only one currently in the mood to intimidate her. For at the sound of snarling and growling, she turned her head in time to blanche again at the sight of Jungle Cat and Ambush, on all fours, snarling at her with their claws extended, teeth bared, and eyes blazing with what looked like a mixture of rage and hunger.

"As you can see, things have the potential to get very unpleasant if you don't cooperate."

Amanda looked to Beast Boy, who still had that unnerving look on his face. He pointed his finger at her. "Right now, your boss, and the associates that he's allowing to use his main lab as a sanctuary, have something, possibly two somethings, that I want. And right now, there is some extra information that you likely know that, in my hands, have the potential to make life very difficult for the Wildebeest Society, and those two associates, all in one go. Simply put, I want you to tell me those things."

Amanda gulped, her face now pale. She'd already started to suspect as much, but now she'd received confirmation. Her captors were indeed now likely planning a raid against the main lab, and they wanted her to provide some very important information; information that would likely allow them to make it past the gate and into the main building. And now, in a moment that she couldn't help but mentally chide herself over, she was undergoing a moment of internal conflict. On the one hand, she felt she should be celebrating. After all, she had wanted to back out of her work with the Wildebeest Society for a long while now. But at the same time, years of ingrained loyalty to the organization and fear of how they'd threatened to kill her husband Finn and their children Lucy and Henry, if not capture them for the sake of either leverage or future test subjects for experiments, if she didn't maintain said loyalty, was enough to make her understandably afraid of even considering trying to commit any treasonous acts, genuine or perceived.

The sound of snarling broke through her indecisive thoughts, and she looked at the unnervingly angry looking shapeshifter while still directing a small glance at the two snarling mutants out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sure that what you have in mind is something that could perhaps make me feel very happy," she admitted nervously. "But you have to understand, my boss and colleagues, if they find out…"

"They won't," the shapeshifter grunted, seemingly spitting out the words. "And in the unlikely event that they do, it will hardly matter. Because once my friends and I have finished our business here, it's entirely likely that the Wildebeest Society could end up finally taken down and brought to justice. And from there, I highly doubt they'll be in any hurry to harm you _or_ your family."

Rookwood's eyes widened. "How did you know about that…?"

She mentally facepalmed at the sight of the shapeshifter pointing his finger at Ambush and Jungle Cat. "Of course," she thought to herself. "Those two and the other Project Menagerie subjects must have found out somehow. It would only make sense these two would tell him sometime after capturing me."

"I'll say it again," said the shapeshifter. "Once my friends and I have finished our business here, the Wildebeest Society could very well be taken out of the picture altogether. And once that's the case, they'll hardly be in any position to harm anyone, let alone your family. And with that in mind, I must emphasize that I don't necessarily _have_ to know in advance what I'm currently willing to ask you to tell me. But even so, that same knowledge could nonetheless make my current plans a heck of a lot easier."

The scientist gulped, closed her eyes, and lifted her head as if fighting to avoid crying while also trying desperately to decide what to do or say. Jungle Cat and Ambush directed a meaningful look at Beast Boy. It was clear at this point they were ready for him to pull out the bluff card; specifically, the planned bluff treat of them being willing to eat her unless she willingly told them what they wanted her to tell them. Wildebeest and the gathered tribespeople also directed a somewhat nervous glance at Beast Boy, clearly well aware of how unpleasant a resort Jungle Cat and Ambush's planned bluff threat would be, especially for what appeared to be arguably the least deserving of such a fate.

The shapeshifter, however, despite having accepted the offer to have that bluff threat available for use, was in no mood to willingly allow that threat to even be implied. Not if there were any other way to get the captured scientist to talk. And in that instant, he chose to act on a newly thought up idea that he hoped more than anything would negate any need for the bluff threat.

He placed his still glove covered left hand upon the scientist's shoulder, nodding his head as his earlier intimidating face gave way to a clear look of empathy. Both the scientist and all of the changeling's currently present allies gaped uncomprehendingly at him as this unexpected new development unfolded.

"What the?" Jungle Cat and Ambush thought to themselves.

"Huh?" Wildebeest thought to himself.

"What in the name of the spirits is he doing?" Tawaba thought to himself.

"Ok?" Rookwood thought to herself.

Beast Boy took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked meaningfully into the scientist's face. "I understand what it's like," he stated, his tone indicating no sign of dishonesty. "To have to constantly have something hovering over you that you're scared of facing that you're all too happy to take the easy route under the hopes that it will eventually just go away on its own if you keep your head down and ignore it long enough. But I can tell you right now that, in situations like this, more often than not, the only way to truly be free of that thing's shadow and be happy again is to make the hard choice, take a risk, and face it head on."

He pointed at Jungle Cat and Ambush. "My two buddies over there were willing to have us all pretend to threaten to feed you to them in the event that you don't willingly tell us what we want to know," he explained.

The scientist's face paled, and all of Beast Boy's assembled allies gaped at him as if thinking, "Why the Devil are you telling her that?!" But Beast Boy nodded his head and kept his gaze upon the scientist. "But naïve as I may sound saying this, I really don't want to have to resort to that. And something tells me that I won't need to either."

He pointed his finger at her. "I know that you could lose your family in the event that you tell us this information. But the way I see it, depending on just how things unfold, you could end up losing a lot more than that if you don't tell us. I mean, sure I just said that we don't necessarily _have_ to know the information we're currently planning to ask you about for our plans to succeed. But just think, what if that information ends up making all the difference between whether or not we succeed today? If that turns out to be the case, and my allies and I lose, then you'd lose a chance to be free! A chance to finally stop associating with the Wildebeest Society and their vile experiments like you've been wanting to do for the last few years! A chance to finally reunite with your family and make a new life for yourself and them without having to worry about your Wildebeest Society history literally watching over your shoulder and at the ready to harm you or them!" He then gestured towards his assembled allies. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how many wrongs you could make right, how many sins you could gain forgiveness for, how many unpleasant actions you could redeem yourself for; especially in regards to the countless innocent people, children included, that you had to experiment on alongside the various criminals who willingly signed up for it all!"

The scientist hung her head, but not before Beast Boy got a good enough look at her face to see that she was seriously considering what he was saying. "She's wavering," he heard the Beast say helpfully.

Beast Boy couldn't help but mentally smile upon hearing this. And from there, he chose to play his final card. "It's still entirely likely you'll have to go to prison for your involvement," he stated. No point being dishonest about that matter. "However, and I say this with the knowledge that what I'm about to tell you may not even truly be how the law actually works, you telling me the stuff I'm about to ask you about, plus anything else you tell me and my friends later about the Wildebeest Society and its actions could very well qualify to my teammates and I, plus the appropriate authorities, as a testimony that could serve as grounds for at least being given a lighter sentence. And if that's the case, then we might very well even be able to arrange for you to go to a prison in America separate from wherever any surviving high-ranking Wildebeest Society members that could carry out threats against you would go. And considering how, from what your organization's former experiments in this area have told me, the Wildebeest Society doesn't have the reach necessary to carry out plots between two separate continents outside of a few companies only designed to serve as fronts, then you and your family would be perfectly safe even if any high-ranking Wildebeest Society members survive in a prison here in Africa after what goes down today." He directed another look at the scientist, his eyebrow raised. "So. What do you say?"

For a few extra seconds, Amanda Rookwood remained silent, the single shapeshifter, three mutants, and multiple local tribespeople watching her intently as if ready to act in some way regardless of what her final decision was. Then she nodded her head. "It definitely sounds risky," she admitted. "What I'm about to do. But if your later success possibly resulting from me doing this is what it takes for me to finally leave, then so be it." She looked towards the young shapeshifter, a determined look on her face despite her still remaining tightly bound by the vines. "Tell me what you want to know," she said. "And I'll answer to the best of my ability."

The tribespeople and mutants nodded their heads in approval, and Beast Boy smiled a toothy grin. "Excellent," he said. He leaned forward, a narrow-eyed look on his face to show how focused he now was on the new task ahead of him. "To start, that deflector shield I've been told is in place around the walls and gate surrounding the main lab? I want to know how to shut it down."

. . . . .

Constance Morales glared at the footage being broadcast from the security cameras, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. As shaky as her standing currently was with her boss, she couldn't help but feel immensely suspicious over the fact that her colleague turned rival Amanda Rookwood still hadn't yet returned from the task she'd been sent out to accomplish the previous night. "Something's wrong," she thought to herself.

Even her two male fellow chief scientists seemed unnerved about Rookwood's noticeable absence. "I have to admit," said Patrick Lagrange, his fingers nervously rubbing the mousy brown hair on the back of his head. "It's not like Amanda to be late like this."

"You can say that again," the third scientist, Saul Azimi, agreed, nodding his head with a suspicious glare of his own on his bearded and weathered face. "As much as I don't want to agree with her in the current circumstances, Dr. Morales may very well be correct to be suspicious of her whereabouts this time around.

Constance directed a withering glare towards Saul out of the corner of her eyes. "I'm right here you know," she thought to herself.

"Now, now," Patrick stated, clearly still insistent on playing the optimist role in this particular situation. "Let's not jump to conclusions. She could simply be lost. Or maybe she overslept."

"It is not like her to get lost," Saul pointed out grouchily. "And even with the amount of time the boss insisted she stay awake last night, she's never had trouble with waking up at an appropriate time needed for punctuality. And neither of those options would explain why she hasn't contacted us, the boss, or anyone else here a single time since her departure last night. And considering how even her two guards appear to be on radio silence, odds are high that she's either been killed or captured." His eyes narrowed further upon mentioning that last possibility. "And if she's been captured, I do not at all like the possibility that she could very well be passing along immensely sensitive information about us and the organization to the enemy even now as we speak."

Constance rolled her eyes. "Well if that's the case, then once we've confirmed as much to be true, we'll just eliminate her pathetic milquetoast family like the boss has already threatened and quite frankly should have done a long time ago." She shook her head side to side. "Kids," she spat, a clear contempt in her voice. "Never saw the appeal in them. Or in getting married for that matter. I certainly don't need no man or squealing little brats in my life to feel fulfilled." She let a wolf-like grin of pride come on her face. "Just give me a chemistry set at the very least and I'll be perfectly happy. As long as I have an experiment to engage in, I don't need no family in my life."

Patrick surreptitiously rolled his eyes, but wisely kept his new thoughts on what Constance had just said to himself, and also managed with similar effort to successfully fight off the urge to reach for the sword he had in a sheath on his belt, draw it out, and stab his colleague with it. Saul, likewise, kept his thoughts to himself, but not without silently glaring and raising his eyebrow at his colleague, while also surreptitiously sticking his hand in one of his cloak's pockets and gently clutching a pair of 'brass knuckles' made of titanium as well as what appeared at first glance to be an ordinary camera.

Constance directed a brief look at the footage from the camera in the room where the four captive Titans were currently still imprisoned. "And you know what? In the event that our missing colleague _is_ in fact a captive and in the midst of telling our enemies sensitive information, I don't really see any problem in at the very least going ahead and having these four captives of our own subjected to the gas treatment early."

"First off," said Patrick, his finger raised as if to emphasize a point. "We don't even know for sure that Amanda's truly been captured, let alone if she's in the midst of committing treason of any sort." He then glared at Saul. "And even in the event that she _is_ giving away important secrets, suppose she's being forced to do so against her will via pain or similar torture? Last I recall, the boss specifically made it clear that this particular threat against her is only supposed to be carried if she commits treason _willingly_."

Saul, to his credit, looked chastened upon hearing this reminder. "Forgot about that," he admitted. He shook his head to get his mind back on the topic Constance had recently brought up. "Regardless though," he then said. "Our boss, his old acquaintance, and that Cold War leftover made our orders perfectly clear. The prisoners are not to be gassed until 12:00 noon, and that's only a guaranteed part of the schedule if the shapeshifter doesn't arrive by that time himself."

Constance groaned. "You guys take the fun out of everything," she grumbled.

"Yeah well, we have our orders," said Patrick, clearly not in the mood to deal with her any more than necessary. "And don't even try to use the fact that the desired guest hasn't arrived yet as evidence to change our minds. It's only 8:00 am. He still has a full four hours before he has to worry about his friends getting exposed to the Primetia, and the last thing any of us needs is for some impatient adrenaline junkie to mess things up."

"He's right," Saul agreed. "And besides, considering your current standing with the boss, I have a pretty good feeling that committing insubordination like you're currently wishing won't help your job security; or your life expectancy for that matter."

Constance grumbled incoherently to herself in irritation over this reminder.

"And while we're at it," Patrick broke in. "Don't you think you should be focusing a little more on those 'pets' of yours as you so lovingly put it? I'm sure they'll be a much more conducive way for you to spend your time right now."

The Latina scientist rolled her eyes. "Seems like that's the only thing I'm ever good for these days," she thought bitterly to herself. But even so, she couldn't help but also feel a slight joy mixed in with her begrudging acceptance of Dr. Lagrange's suggestion. "After all," she thought to herself. "In the event that shapeshifter nephew of our boss's old visiting associate tries to pull any fast ones on us, I'll finally get the chance to let them show off how useful they'll be for us now that I've gotten them fully under our control." She then let another malicious grin of pride come on her face. "And if this works out," she thought to herself darkly while directing a meaningful look at the framed picture next to the computer at Dr. Rookwood's conspicuously unoccupied desk. "I know just the thing to suggest for their first assignment outside the lab."

. . . . .

"So the code's nyumbu?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes," Dr. Rookwood responded. She nodded her head. At this point, she was now currently free from the vines that had bound her earlier. "The Swahili word for wildebeest. That same code will also be necessary to unlock and open the main gate unless you have me around so that I can use my handprint or retinal structure. And unless you're willing to risk giving yourselves away by having me contact my boss to see if he can arrange for the guard beast to be moved out of the way, you'll likely have to be especially careful trying to enter."

"No need to worry about that," said Jungle Cat. He nodded his head. "We've already got an idea how to take care of that. Appreciate the offer to help though."

"If you say so." Rookwood nodded her head, and then looked back at Beast Boy. "I take it, that wasn't the only question you wanted to ask me?"

"Correct." Beast Boy nodded his head. "That scientist that the Wildebeest Society is currently providing sanctuary for at the main lab here in Lamumba. He told me during that phone call we had last night that he had a cure available for Primetia. Is that true?"

"Yes. It's true. I saw it with my own eyes. And it works. But only if applied via injection. All attempts at applying the cure through inhaling it in gas form or drinking it in liquid form have failed. And so far there's two samples left. You'll find them in a specially designed safe within a vault two sectors to the immediate left of the central lab chamber. The same code you need for the gate and deflector shields are what you'll need to open the vault and unlock the safe. And that in mind, both the cure and Primetia itself need to be kept at a very specific temperature in order to be viable for use. Once you open the safe and allow the cure samples to be exposed to potentially hotter temperatures, you'll have an hour at most before they go bad."

"I'll keep that in mind," Beast Boy stated, mentally taking note of how he could so far still only hope that the cure would even be capable of working on him in the event he successfully got to its location. As much as the combined effort of the talisman and his animal forms seemed to be so far keeping the virus's influence at bay, he knew that they couldn't hold it back forever. "Do you have a map of the main lab building's interior we could use?"

"On my communicator."

Nyota handed the communicator Ambush had confiscated the previous night back to its original owner, who subsequently got the device unlocked. Once Beast Boy and Wildebeest had subsequently found the map and gotten it downloaded onto their communicators, the two Titans slipped their communicators back in their pants pockets while Rookwood let Ambush have the previously confiscated Wildebeest Society communicator back. The changeling looked back at the scientist.

"Ok, the map has everything pretty clearly labeled," he then said. "My allies and I should probably look it over a couple times just to be sure that we don't have to be constantly looking at it in order to find our way through the lab, but otherwise it should be easy. And that being the case." He pointed at Tawaba. "My friends over here have already told me about the defenses they had to deal with outside the lab. Anything you can tell us about any defenses will have to worry about once we've made it past those outer defenses?"

Rookwood nodded her head. "Yes. For starters, the entire building will be crawling with guards. Specifically, you'll have to contend with all the lower ranking human members of the Wildebeest Society, the grunts working for that Cold War scientist, and the sizable number that remains of the Wildebeest Society's herd of wildebeest hybrid soldiers. Your experiences with Project Baby Wildebeest should be enough for you to know what to expect from the hybrids, the Society's human underlings are all armed with crossbows, and Professor Chang's grunts are armed with laser rifles."

"I see."

Beast Boy nodded his head. "Are there any security gadgets we should be aware of?" He then asked. "Turret guns? Trap chambers? Anything like that?"

The scientist shook her head. "Not many. There's a trio of laser turrets installed into the ceiling of the main entrance room. And all the guards and soldiers I mentioned not too long ago are specifically trained or similarly under orders to not get involved unless any intruders that manage to enter the lab through that area manage to either destroy or similarly bypass those turrets. But once you get past those turrets, all those guards I mentioned are largely the only thing you have to worry about. The boss says that having too many big and potentially destructive security gadgets in the area could cause unnecessarily high risk of irreparable or similarly costly damage or destruction to valuable experiments, technology, and other assets in the event of a fracas."

"Well that's good news," said Tawaba.

"I said _largely_," Rookwood then stated. "There are still a couple other factors besides all those soldiers that you'll need to watch out for."

"We're listening," said Jungle Cat.

"To start, there's my three colleagues amongst the inner circle. You may have been able to easily capture me, but not only was I caught off guard, but my colleagues are also considerably better equipped and trained for combat than I am. Likely because the boss wanted me to be kept weak to reduce my chances of betraying him and walking out on the Society."

"What should we expect from your colleagues?" Mumbyo asked.

"The chief technician likes to get his fists dirty," Rookwood began. "And he has a pair of specially made titanium knuckles that he wears just for combat. And he also has a specially designed camera that can transform into a portable laser cannon."

Beast Boy silently whistled. "That could be a problem."

"You think?!" Nyota hissed.

"The chief chemist is a trained fencer. And he's very fast with his rapier. So you'll want to either keep your distance or be a very skilled swordfighter yourself if you encounter him."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Beast Boy.

"And my fellow top geneticist," Rookwood continued. "Who also currently happens to be both the chief project overseer as well as the one directly responsible for Project Baby Wildebeest's successful creation and birth, is armed with a set of foudre knives that she's scarily skilled at using in both close combat and as throwing projectiles. And if she happens to be in an especially sadistic mood, she's also more than willing to draw out a specially designed voltage whip she designed herself immediately after she was first hired."

Wildebeest shuddered. "I definitely remember _that_ thing," he whimpered.

"You also might want to keep an eye out for the boss." Amanda nodded her head. "Granted, he doesn't often get the chance to visibly demonstrate as much; but if the claims he's made of his prowess are true, he could be a pretty tough opponent for anyone who ends up battling him."

"She's not kidding," Ambush broke in, Jungle Cat and Wildebeest likewise nodding their heads in agreement.

"Indeed," said Jungle Cat. "From what we remember of our time in the Wildebeest Society's custody, their current leader, some ginger haired scoundrel in a white cloak who calls himself Arronax, is immensely skilled at wielding a broadsword. He's also armed with a revolver that he's reportedly got very good aim with. And furthermore."

The lion mutant briefly paused and looked around as if wanting to make extra certain that no unwelcome people were around to overhear what he was about to say. Ambush and Wildebeest similarly looked as if checking for intruders or eavesdroppers. Dr. Rookwood, however, soon decided to go ahead and finish the description for them. "There's a medallion he wears around his neck. One that's reportedly been passed down to him from his immediate predecessor, not to mention been worn by every person to take the mantle of Wildebeest Society leader. And while I myself haven't seen any proof, there are reportedly rumors that this medallion used to belong to some sort of wizard and that all who've worn it since it was found by the Society's founding father have posthumously been granted the ability to wield that same wizard's power as long as they have the medallion around their necks."

Beast Boy, the three mutants, and the assembled tribal warriors all looked each other in the eyes, uncertain as to just what to think about this new information. "Ok then," Beast Boy eventually managed to say. "We should probably at least keep this possibility in mind, just to be safe."

His myriad allies nodded in agreement. It certainly sounded fair enough.

"There's one last thing I can think of right now that you should probably be aware of."

All eyes once again returned to Dr. Rookwood, who took a deep breath in preparation for what she was about to say. "I don't know the full details. For some reason, Arronax and my three fellow inner circles members have kept me out of the loop for this particular topic. But from what little I've managed to figure out, one of the especially important projects from the sister location was transferred to the main lab about a week or so ago. And yesterday afternoon, my colleague that currently serves as Chief Project Overseer reportedly managed to make the finishing touches on it."

"In other words," Beast Boy stated. "There might be a completely brand-new weapon or similar unpleasant security measure to look out for today."

"That is correct." Amanda nodded her head. "Is there anything else you'd like to ask me about?"

All eyes promptly turned to Beast Boy, who thought carefully to himself. "I think that just about covers everything," he eventually responded. He nodded his head. "I mean, we've certainly got just about all the necessary security information and whatnot that we'll need. And considering how well suited for combat everyone else but Chang is turning out to be, I highly doubt that we'll need to be any less careful if we encounter whoever it is that Chang himself is currently working for."

Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat nodded in agreement. "Sounds about right," they stated in unison.

"Indeed." Tawaba nodded his head before then turning to face the scientist. "For your own safety, as well as a means of insurance for our own sake, we currently plan to leave you here in this clearing." He pointed at the burrow that had served as the captive's makeshift cell. "Right back inside that burrow to be more specific."

Amanda thought to herself, carefully considering what she'd just been told. Then she nodded. "I suppose that's fair enough," she admitted, a stoic look of acceptance on her face. "After all, I might just get myself hurt or in the way if I were to accompany you. Not to mention I could end up at risk of trying to provide aid for the enemy out of sheer lingering fear of what they'll do to me if I don't."

"Our thoughts exactly." N'jobu nodded his head. "We'll also be keeping your communications device in our possession until we've finished and come back to release you."

"Also reasonable."

The scientist thought to herself, at one point directing her glance at the now discarded binding vines and sticky leaf lying around on the ground near her former makeshift cell. "You know what?" She then said. "If you're going to leave me sealed up in that burrow over there while you're gone, you might as well tie me back up with those vines again and place that leaf back over my mouth. That way it will be _especially_ difficult for me to get out and risk screwing things up."

"An odd request," N'jobu admitted, a somewhat perplexed look on his face. "But if you really feel that will help, I suppose we might as well."

Tawaba nodded in agreement, though not without looking somewhat perplexed himself. "Nonetheless," the chieftain king then said. "Just in case you later feel willing to try to join in and confident that you won't end up betraying us, we will make sure to have a means for you to free yourself, your confiscated weapon, and a jar of specially designed shamanistic combat powder carefully hidden inside that burrow prior to placing you back in there. You'll have to look extra carefully in order to find even one of those things, let alone all three. But in the event that you do manage to find them and get free, then we all very much hope that you will either stay in this clearing anyway or provide aide exclusively to our side in the event you come to the main lab and take part in the coming trial."

"I understand." The scientist nodded her head once again. "May I ask just what that combat powder does?"

"That's something I'll allow you the chance to find out yourself for now," said N'jobu. "But I will tell you this; it's designed to be thrown into your enemies' eyes. And by all that is sacred _do not_ consume it. Do so and you will at best become violently ill and at worst die of a severe form of poisoning."

The prisoner gulped, her face pale and eyes widened. "Got it. Thanks." She then tensed up, as if the matter of poisoning had just reminded her of something. "I almost forgot," she then said before looking at Beast Boy. "Your teammates currently being held prisoner? They're currently being contained in one of the ancillary laboratory chambers two sectors to the right of the central lab chamber."

"So basically the reverse direction of the antidote's location," said Beast Boy.

"Exactly." Amanda nodded her head in the affirmative. "Furthermore, you'll need a keycard in order to enter any room with a door located inside the building once you've made it through the entrance chamber. And that said, I truly do wish you all the best of luck."

Beast Boy and his assembled allies couldn't help but smile upon hearing this. Even the Beast seemed happy. "She is telling the truth," the changeling heard it say within his mind.

"In which case, thank you ma'am," Beast Boy said, smile still on his face.

"You're welcome. Happy to have helped."

"A fact we very much appreciate." Tawaba nodded his own head before then directing the entire group's attention to him. "Alright everyone," he stated. "Now that this interrogation is over and we have just about all the information we'll need, we'd best get to work on what was originally scheduled before the two human cats captured this scientist last night." He looked to Beast Boy. "What time does your communication device say it is?"

"8:30." The shapeshifter flashed the chieftain king a thumbs-up. "We still have a full three and a half hours before my deadline with Chang."

"In that case, we should have just enough time for a quick breakfast."

The rest of the group was all too eager to agree to this latest statement from Tawaba. "Definitely not a bad idea," Beast Boy said, licking his lips hungrily. "As long as we don't take too long, I should have plenty of time after I finish eating to real quick go into the jungle and finish setting up our plan for getting past the security beast. And once that's done, I'll give you the previously agreed upon signal to let you know, and you can place Dr. Rookwood back into her safety chamber and meet back up with me at the agreed upon rendezvous point."

He then paused as if he'd just had a particularly important thought. He looked back at the captured Wildebeest Society chief scientist. "Professor Chang told me that his benefactor that you've got living alongside you all at the lab right now has something big planned for me. Any chance you can tell me what it is?"

The scientist thought to herself, grimaced, and then shook her head. "I'd like to," she admitted. "But I only just got allowed into the loop on that particular detail yesterday. And yesterday morning, long before your friends even arrived, Arronax and that benefactor you mentioned had us all be injected with a string of nanotech devices designed to release a lethal dose of cyanide into our bloodstreams at the press of a button in the event that any of us tried to blow the whistle on that particular detail…"

"Say no more."

Beast Boy nodded his head. "I'm sure I'll end up finding out myself anyway over the course of the raid." He looked back to Tawaba. "That's all my questions for now."

His assorted allies nodded, and from there they all got to work on preparing and eating a quick breakfast for them all to eat. And as planned, Beast Boy got up to head off into the jungle the instant he'd finished eating. And as he made his way over towards his current planned destination, he couldn't help but feel especially confident in his chances at success. After all, the talk he'd ended up having with the Beast in a dream the previous evening thanks to a shamanistic potion N'jobu had given him had proven very informative.

. . . . .

(The previous evening)

"I see that your shaman friend's concoction is working."

Beast Boy opened his eyes in surprise upon suddenly hearing the voice of the Beast. He'd just sat up from where he was lying on the ground to sleep and turned his head in the direction the Beast's voice had come from when he noticed a very peculiar detail about the environment around him.

At that moment, with the exception of himself and the Beast, the clearing being used as a campsite for the raiding party was completely empty. And furthermore, not only did the entire environment have a slightly greenish tinge to it, but the entirety of the space outside the clearing's tree circled boundaries was nothing but solid green light and empty space. "Where are we?"

"You are in an area very deep within your mind," the Beast explained. It nodded its head, a sage-like look of wisdom in its eyes. "And it is here that we'd best have that talk you were originally planning on having with me before bed prior to your shaman friend informing you of the means to be guaranteed a talk with me while asleep."

Beast Boy thought to himself, and then nodded. "Ok then, sure." He paused again, and then started looking around as if checking for intruders.

"Your other forms will not bother us," the Beast explained. The same mystical power that made this current meeting possible has also set up a barrier around this area that will prevent any hostile mental forces from trying to attack or invade. And even if that weren't the case, all the lesser animals that share living space with me aren't currently in the mood for further violence and rage anyhow. I was able to get them all to calm down; at least for the remainder of this evening."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow in wonder. "How did you manage that?"

"It took a lot of effort on my part, and I had to seriously exercise my willpower over them all. But about a couple hours or so after that talk I had with you, the shaman, and that king, I was able to get them all to settle down long enough to let me fully explain to them the truth behind their current rage. And needless to say, they were all too eager to go on truce and subsequently start working as hard as they could to keep themselves calm and at peace despite the influence of the virus still eating away at them. And believe me, I'm not kidding when I say that they're giving it all they've got to give us all time to be successfully cured."

"Well that's good to hear."

"Indeed. And I should also mention that there is an intriguing detail they managed to tell me that you might find interesting."

"What's that?"

"The virus apparently might not be the only foreign thing now inside your blood stream as a result of that gas."

Beast Boy's eyes widened. "That doesn't sound good."

"No it does not, but from what the other animals have told me, this other presence does not appear to have caused any harm to you personally. But they've been able to feel its presence. It's reportedly something cold and metallic, and they've all felt it poking around in their essences. And that in mind, I myself did end up feeling it briefly poking around in my own essence a couple times sometime after they told me about it."

"That's…an interesting bit of information."

The changeling thought to himself. So there was apparently something metallic in his bloodstream poking around in the animal DNA inside him that allowed him to shapeshift? This definitely sounded unnerving. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel that there was something about this information that sounded very tangentially familiar. Then his eyes narrowed as he properly considered a certain detail that the Beast had mentioned. "About when did all the other animals first notice this?"

"They first started feeling it swimming through your bloodstream and poking around in their DNA not too long after they started feeling the Rage. But it wasn't until I was able to get them to calm down earlier this afternoon that they were able to properly focus on it enough to fully realize its significance."

"I see." Beast Boy nodded his head. "Well, I suppose it's better late than never."

The Beast snorted, but nonetheless nodded its head in agreement. "Nevertheless, it appears to have stopped as of the previous hour. Or at the very least, we can no longer feel it actively working on whatever it was doing before."

Beast Boy considered this new information. "I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news."

"For now, I believe it best we act as if it's good news, but nonetheless be on guard for any unpleasant possibilities."

"Like I'm not already?"

"Very funny. But never mind that. I believe you had other things you wished to talk to me about?"

"You could say that."

Beast Boy pointed his finger at the Beast. "To start, there's something that you said back in our earlier conversation alongside Tawaba and N'jobu that I feel like I'm gonna need some further clarification on; especially since, depending on just what the end results are, they could very well include something that I might need for tomorrow's plan."

"Let me guess, you wish to know what I meant when I said that your connection to the Red brought about by your powers allowed those very powers to be advanced to a far higher degree than they would have been without that connection?"

"You read my mind."

"Not hard to do considering I live there." Beast Boy briefly glared in annoyance at the Beast, which in turn very briefly let a wry grin come on its furry face. "But that in mind, I shall explain." The Beast nodded its head. "For starters, all the animals apart from myself that you've either turned into or shown the potential of turning into, did you really all of them had their DNA already present within that serum your parents gave you?"

"Um," Beast Boy thought to himself. "Well, kind of. I mean, that was the natural assumption."

"And in all fairness, a pretty decent number of your forms indeed were included directly within that serum," the Beast admitted. "But the dinosaurs? The various other extinct animals? The sasquatch? Where do you think your parents would have gotten the DNA for all those? And that's an especially good question for the sasquatch considering even you yourself didn't believe those existed before you met that one individual in the wild during your time in the Doom Patrol."

Beast Boy thought to himself once again, his face slowly turning a lighter shade of green and his eyes widening as he fully realized the truth in what the Beast had said. He had honestly never thought about any of this. "You're saying my connection to the Red helped me develop the ability to turn into animals that didn't already have their DNA as ingredients for that serum my parents gave me?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying," the Beast responded. "You remember how your metal friend mentioned that your blood and DNA was dangerously unstable on the night you first gained the ability to assume my form? Your DNA has always been unstable even before then by virtue of both the animal DNA implanted within you by the serum as well as the extra influence from your later connection to the Red. The latter, however, contributed heavily to you developing even more animals to be capable of turning into by allowing the animal DNA already inside you to briefly combine together every now and then in ways that would cause mutations that allowed DNA from completely different and previously unrepresented animals to take shape alongside the DNA already inside you. And just like the animals that already had DNA available to you in the serum, these new animals would start out as just barely conscious specks of mind that would later develop into full consciousnesses that would later 'awaken' if you will as full minds with their own personalities similar to as if they were the actual animals themselves."

Beast Boy silently gulped. "That's a lot to take in," he whispered to himself, though nonetheless feeling certain the Beast would hear him say it anyway. "Is that how you ended up taking shape inside me?"

"Yes and no. The tiniest spark of what would become my presence in your DNA did show signs of development over the course of the successful birth of a great many other animals. However, considering just how low of a likelihood there was for the specific mutation that would have been required for me to fully come into existence within you to actually happen on its own in even the circumstances your DNA was in at the time, I probably would have _never_ properly existed in you as even a full consciousness, let alone a form you could transform into, if it hadn't been for those chemicals you got doused in at that animal testing site where you and your friends first encountered that foul degenerate who also ended up somehow gaining the ability to take on the form of the Red's avatar."

Beast Boy involuntarily shuddered at the reminder of Adonis. The arrogant and overly muscle obsessed other boy had always proven somewhat of a personal nemesis for him ever since their first few encounters. And their recent clash on Valentine's Day that year had hardly given him any more reason to like him. The fact that said clash had ended with the Beast very nearly _killing_ Adonis certainly didn't help matters either. "So those chemicals _did_ basically allow you to take shape inside me," he then said, hoping to move the discussion away from Adonis.

"Yes. As I mentioned not too long ago, the exposure to the chemicals caused your already unstable genetics to become even more so. And in the moment in which that considerably less controlled form of instability got triggered, literally _all_ the different strands of animal DNA within you combined together for the briefest of instances. Not very long, but long enough to allow me to fully come into existence within you. And from there, you probably remember very well how much influence I ended up having over you during my earlier days of existence than I do now."

"Oh I definitely remember _that_ time," Beast Boy grumbled.

"And while the antidote your metal friend gave you got your DNA back to the more controlled level of instability it had been at before in time to prevent you from getting literally torn apart from the inside, I was naturally there to stay. And I'll freely admit, if it hadn't been for the bonds you had with your friends, especially the mate, being present for me to ground myself on, I would have probably taken even _longer_ to reach my current dynamic with you than I ended up taking."

"Well there's a comforting thought."

"I resent that." The Beast shook his head. "That being said though, sufficient DNA for even more brand-new animal forms have continued to develop within your blood stream even after my coming into existence amongst them. And as you noticed yourself the night before this current night, your recent infection with Primetia triggered your genetics sufficiently enough for a mass influx of new forms that you'll probably want to consider trying out sometime after you've been cured."

Beast Boy couldn't help but smile upon hearing this. "I _knew_ those unfamiliar animal form minds I detected came from somewhere." He clasped his hands together, clearly excited. "Care to tell me what they are?"

"There's too many to list right now," the Beast responded. "And besides, I'd really rather not spoil any surprises." It nodded its head. "I will tell you this though, you were not wrong to suspect earlier at the brontopod herd's nesting ground that the sasquatch is no longer the only imaginary animal you can turn into," the Beast then continued, very deliberately air quoting 'imaginary'.

Beast Boy silently whistled, and then thought to himself, his excitement increasing as he considered the myriad fantastical animals he'd encountered this very adventure, a couple others he and the other Titans had encountered during a couple notable adventures the previous summer, the gigantic army's worth of 'imaginary' sea animals that had fought alongside them to help Aquaman a good couple weeks or so ago, and the various possible mythical creatures he could yet discover the existence of via turning into them that he could think of. "That definitely sounds like a fun bit of power to experiment with."

"And you could yet test to see if there are any other animals from outside this planet you could turn into. And considering how you once turned into an alien animal you encountered that first time you visited the home planet of your pack alpha's mate, I'm surprised you didn't try to further experiment on your extraterrestrial morphing capabilities over the course of your most recent space trip."

"Had more important things to worry about that time," Beast Boy responded. "And considering what Starfire told me about the unpleasant affects Earth's atmosphere and similar environmental conditions could have on some of the alien animals she knows about, I haven't exactly been in any hurry to take any undue risks to my health by doing further experimentation in that regard."

"I suppose that's fair enough," the Beast grumbled begrudgingly.

"I'm still hoping to do some testing on those new forms this virus has allowed me to develop though," Beast Boy then said for the sake of a peace offering.

"You think _those_ forms sound exciting? Wait till you get an idea of what other abilities your connection to the Red could allow us to grant you if you were to allow us the chance."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Come now," said the Beast. "Do you really think that shapeshifting into animals is the only ability you've been granted by all the animal DNA you've got stewing around in your veins?"

"Well I have noticed how quickly I tend to heal from most minor injuries," Beast Boy admitted. "And I'm certainly going to forget how impressively rarely, if ever, I've gotten sick since I first got my powers. And that's without considering the enhanced senses I have even when not in one of my animal forms."

"Indeed." The Beast nodded. "The healing factor you've inherited in equal parts from myself and your Portuguese Man-O-War form, among possibly a few other forms. And then there's your enhanced resilience to infection and disease thanks to having so much different forms of animal DNA inside you providing immensely combined disease resistance and an enhanced immune system. And the enhanced sight, smell, hearing, and similar senses are a no brainer. But even with those in mind, you're still only aware of a comparatively tiny fraction of the additional powers your connection to the Red could allow you to utilize if you gave it the chance to do so."

"Like what?"

"Well for starters, remember how you are capable of mentally communicating with your friend from Atlantis while in the form of an ocean dwelling animal? Or how you were once able to 'speak' to a pack of Utahraptors living in your crystal companion's hidden subterranean home while in that particular form? You could have the power to properly communicate with all animals in existence to the same degree that your Atlantean companion is capable of doing with all ocean dwelling animals. And while in your natural human form no less!"

Beast Boy's eyes widened in surprise. "I could?"

"Yes," the Beast responded. "Yes you could. And not only that, but if you were to channel your connection to the Red just right while in specific animal forms, you could have access to a variety of special powers that each of your animal forms could only be capable of using with an unnaturally enhanced connection to the Red."

"Like what?"

"You could give off an ultrasonic roar or howl while in your lion, tiger, or wolf forms," the Beast explained. "Or you could run almost exactly as fast as your speedster friend, if not faster, while in your cheetah or ostrich forms. Your giraffe and sauropod forms could gain the ability to stretch their necks to unnatural lengths as if made of rubber. Your pachyderm forms could attain similar power with their trunks. Your armored skinned forms could withstand far more different and deadly types of attack then they're already capable of. Your insect forms could gain the ability to clone themselves the way your amoeba form is capable of doing." The Beast let a wolf-like grin come on its face as it mentioned that last ability. "Just think of how much more useful your bee or wasp forms could be if you could turn into an entire _swarm_ of them instead of just a single individual."

At the sight of its host's stunned look, the Beast chose to reveal another important detail. "In fact, you've miraculously managed a couple times to unwittingly allow yourself a very brief heightened unnatural connection to the Red when in your porcupine form. I've noticed how you've occasionally been capable of having that particular form be capable of shooting its quills like arrows or darts while in its shape. Considering how you ought to be very aware already of how this is quite simply impossible for any normal porcupine or hedgehog to achieve in reality, you really ought to have wondered how you were able to manage such an impossibility while in porcupine mode every once and a while."

Beast Boy thought to himself, still quite stunned as he properly considered everything the Beast had just revealed. "How powerful am I?" Beast Boy thought dumbfoundedly to himself, half in awe and half in fear.

"And not only that," the Beast continued. "But just think of how your instincts and senses could be even further improved. You've already demonstrated the ability to sense fear and the paranormal the way some animals are capable of doing so, and you've already shown yourself to be finely in tuned with your animal instincts. But with the right level of channeling of the Red, your instincts could allow you to be a borderline mind reader; you could be capable of knowing what a person you're talking to is about to say mere minutes, if not seconds, before the other person speaks, among other tricks."

Beast Boy gulped. "That sounds nice."

"And finally, there are a few extra abilities I myself have that were inherited from the DNA of some of the more fantastical animals. Considering I'm supposed to be the ultimate animal, it would only make sense I have a few extra abilities that you could use while in my shape that would put me on at least the same level as some of the strongest of those creatures."

"Like what?" Beast Boy asked, now genuinely curious.

The Beast nodded, turned so that its back was facing the changeling, and then abruptly clasped its front paws together. The resulting shockwave of noise that emanated from this clap caused a tree multiple feet in front of the Beast to burst into smithereens. Beast Boy was still gaping in surprise at the wreckage of the tree when the Beast then turned its head towards another tree and let a gigantic stream of green flames burst out of its open jaws and engulf this second tree. The Beast didn't even allow a full three seconds to pass the moment it had set this 2nd tree on fire before it then pointed its left-hand claws at a 3rd tree without even looking and blasted it to ash with three tendrils of green lightning. And all of two seconds later, the Beast lifted its head to face the 'sky' and unleashed an ultrasonic roar, the resulting 'beam' of noise waves rapidly spouting upwards like a geyser with such force that the 'ground' seemed to shake from underneath the Beast's feet. The 2nd tree was _still_ burning with green flames and the noise of the Beast's roar was still ringing in the air when the Beast turned around to face its once again stunned host once more. "Need I go on?"

Beast Boy shook his head side to side, half in response to the Beast's question and half in numbed shock. "But…if I'm capable of doing all this extra stuff, how come I haven't been able to do any of it already? Or at the very least, why am I only capable so far of getting a small taste of it in certain forms?"

"Because you've been willingly holding yourself back from being capable of unleashing your full potential," the Beast explained.

"How?" Beast Boy asked, now more confused than ever.

"Like I said, you haven't been fully giving your connection to the Red the chance to allow you to access the full extent of your powers. How that is the case? It is simple. You've been holding back over the course of your efforts at keeping yourself in control."

The shapeshifter's eyes widened, and his face went pale. "You're saying I have to let you guys take over control of me for this?!"

"No," the Beast grumbled, sounding remarkably calm despite what its host had just said. "But what I am saying is that you're trying too hard to maintain full control of your body as well as the powers that you're used to having at the cost of unwittingly denying yourself the ability to access the full extent of your abilities. You're so afraid of losing control of yourself and potentially breaking your defense against complete takeover by myself or one of the lesser animals you can turn into that you won't even allow those defenses to bend."

Beast Boy thought carefully to himself. He had to admit, what the Beast had just now said actually did make a fair amount of sense. "So you're suggesting…?"

The Beast nodded its head. "I'm not suggesting you allow myself, or any of your other forms to initiate a full takeover of your mind. However, for the sake of being capable of utilizing all the other abilities the Red could allow you to have, you need to at least be willing to strike a compromise between yourself and us in regard to how much access we have to your mind's inner workings."

"That could definitely take a while in the current circumstances," Beast Boy admitted, thinking of the uncertain state of control all his forms apart from the Beast were currently in for themselves, let alone of his own body.

"Precisely why you can at the very least start out by trying to strike up an appropriate balance of control between yourself and me. After all, as has been established, I'm currently the least likely to abruptly attempt to initiate a blind rage fueled complete takeover of your mind. And if you are successful, then you'll at the very least have the telepathy you'll no doubt need for what you currently have in mind for the sake of getting rid of that guard beast tomorrow."

"Sounds reasonable enough." Beast Boy nodded his head. He then looked at the Beast, an inquisitive look on his face. "Any hints you could give me on how to possibly achieve something like that? I mean, considering how used I am to outright stonewalling you and the others, I'm gonna need to know a good way to visualize allowing just enough influence from you guys past the walls without allowing a full takeover."

"Just think of me as similar to that One for All power from those backwards comic books you like to read," the Beast suggested. It let a wry grin appear on its face at the sight of the half surprised and half confused look on its host's face. "I live in your mind, I am more than capable of absorbing a little knowledge from what you learn while reading."

"Ok then," Beast Boy stated. He thought to himself. "So basically, I need to stop thinking of you as a dangerous last resort…"

"And more like a natural part of your body," the Beast finished. "Just like how Deku eventually gets taught how to view One for All after receiving one bone breaking arm injury too many."

"Ok then, that's a start," Beast Boy admitted. "I hope it doesn't take too long for me to get that down just right."

"Fortunately," the Beast stated. "We currently have until you wake up tomorrow morning for us to practice. And if we're lucky, that should be just enough time to get at least a decent balance to allow your telepathy figured out in time for you to use said telepathy on those dinosaurs you plan to hire tomorrow to go up against that erumpent."

. . . . .

(Present time)

Beast Boy stood directly by the edge of what Jungle Cat and Ambush had claimed was the location of the kasai-rex pair's nest, a half confident and half nervous look on his face. He had managed, after several tries, to successfully get just the right balance of control between himself and the Beast. As of now, the current agreement was that Beast Boy himself would have full control of his body while the Beast was allowed to maintain the current access it had to his mind while also now having access to all of its host's senses and be also allowed the privilege to talk to the shapeshifter from inside his mind whenever it pleased. And just to sweeten the deal, the Beast was now also allowed to temporarily take over control in 'special circumstances' such as moments of hypnotism or similar states that would leave the changeling otherwise unable to react without the Beast's help. But most importantly, he now was also indeed capable of finally using full proper animal telepathy, just as he'd hoped he'd be capable of someday doing. And while he was feeling somewhat unnerved over how the Beast had later responded to his question as to why the Red's avatar had allowed a version of itself to be present in him to be capable of transforming into, he knew that this matter was something to be worried about more openly at a later date. After all, as much as both he and the Beast were wary over the as of yet unknown reason that the avatar itself had allowed a version of itself to come into existence in Beast Boy himself, let alone inside Adonis, that matter clearly didn't seem to be as important in the immediate future.

He took a deep breath, exhaled, and then stared ahead into the relative darkness within the entrance to the clearing. "Hello," he stated with his telepathy to get the attention of any potential occupants.

In a flash, a low tyrannosaur-like snarling filled the air within the clearing. "Who's there?" Said a low guttural mental voice.

"Who dares intrude upon our nest?" Snarled another voice, but this one sounding raspier and more 'feminine'.

"Forgive me for my intrusion," Beast Boy stated. "But I have come to ask you for assistance."

There was a brief pause. "Assistance?" Said the guttural voice that Beast Boy now assumed to belong to the male of the duo. "You wish to form a temporary pack?"

"Sort of."

There was another brief pause. "What exactly are you?" The raspy voiced female asked. "You do not quite sound like one of us."

"Come to the light, and you'll see."

There was yet another brief pause, but then the sound of heavy footsteps and snapping foliage split the air, complete with immensely noticeable vibrations erupting from the ground. After about a minute, two scaly tyrannosaur-like heads peeked out from the clearing. The shapeshifter was also able to get a peek at the tips of the claws on the beasts' hands as well as a small portion of their necks that allowed him to take note of both how one of the two was shorter than the other and how that same shorter member of the pair had black lightning bolt shaped stripes instead of the yellow ones present on the one the changeling had seen two days prior. The two kasai-rex snorted, red eyes narrowing at the sight of the shapeshifter standing before them.

"I am confused," said the shorter dinosaur, speaking in the voice that Beast Boy now knew for sure belonged to the male of the pair. "I cannot tell if you are prey, an enemy, or something to be ignored."

Its mate likewise appeared uncertain what to think. "What are you?"

"For now, consider me an ally."

Beast Boy nodded his head. "I hear that you have a nest. Are you expecting offspring?"

"We are," said the male, a slightly confused tone to its mental voice. It narrowed its eyes. "Why do you ask such a question green one?"

Beast Boy looked to the female, showing no reaction to having been referred to as 'green one'. "You must feel very hungry than. Don't you?"

"Yes," the female hissed, reflexively licking her chops. "My mate and I have to almost constantly be out hunting for food. And since most of the longnecks we usually prefer to hunt have departed to their nesting grounds many miles away from where we've set up our nest, or since been eaten by others of our kind located much closer to said nesting grounds, we've often had to make do on longnoses, fur covered and horned longnecks, and other comparatively smaller large leaf eaters. And even one of those alternate forms of food is nowhere near as filling as a proper longneck would be. For that matter, I'd even be willing to eat a firehorn so as to have even a single day's worth of time in which I'm not feeling constantly hungry."

"A firehorn?" Beast Boy asked, now having a strong suspicion that this phrase was the term the kasai-rex used to refer to erumpents. "You hunt those?"

"Indeed we do green one," said the male kasai-rex. "Not often, mind you. But whenever we're feeling in the mood, or one of them happens to be in the area, our kind is more than willing to make a meal out of one."

"Yes," said the female. "They are not nearly the same in taste as the longnecks we usually go after, but they are still delicious in their own way. And it certainly helps that the same ability we have that allows us to eat the longnecks without getting poisoned also allows us to have no fear of the fluid within a firehorn's horn that would cause any lesser carnivore to explode into blood and guts."

Beast Boy silently whistled, filing the information he'd just learned away for future reference. "That sounds amazing," he stated. "What would you say if I were to inform you that I could allow you the opportunity to hunt and eat a firehorn this very day?"

The two dinosaurs glared at him, a clear suspicion in their eyes. "You'd better not be lying green one," said the female. "Because I will gladly eat you instead if you are."

"Oh I'm definitely telling the truth. I've heard from a good source that there is one living in a valley surrounded by cliffs not too far away from this very clearing."

The male snarled. "You mean the same valley that is inhabited by a pack of peculiar beasts similar to you that carry sticks that cause us to feel the pain of fire without even touching us?"

"And also by a herd of brutes that resembled fanged, armored, and two-legged versions of the furry horned ones that can be found in the grasslands outside this very jungle?" The female added in.

"Exactly." Beast Boy nodded his head. "In fact, if you were to agree to come to hunt and eat this firehorn that dwells in the same valley as them, you'd be able to help me get rid of those two groups of unwelcome creatures."

The two dinosaurs looked each other in the eyes, and then back at Beast Boy. "Such an idea does hold appeal," the male snarled. "After all, a mere nuisance those groups may be, but never is it pleasant to have a thorn in one's flesh."

"Agreed," the female snarled, a particularly dangerous gleam in her red eyes. "And I've especially come to hate the two-legged fanged furry horned ones that live in that valley in recent days. She leaned forward, allowing the light to touch her face even further sufficiently enough for Beast Boy to see an unpleasant looking bruising around her right eye. "Especially after one of them was so impudent as to strike me in my eye while I was eating a longneck luckless enough to have fallen immensely far behind its herd while traveling to its kind's nesting grounds, and even after I'd given the little speck a chance to take its herd and leave me be."

"Then I'm sure you'll be all the happier to help me get rid of them by dealing with the firehorn they have living alongside them." Beast Boy smiled, very pleased with himself as well as happy with how well the plan now seemed to be taking shape and working. "But there are some things you must do in order for both this planned hunt on your end and my efforts at getting rid of the unwelcome beings that live alongside it to work."

"Really now?"

"And what might those be, green one?"

"To start," the changeling began, happy even more that the two kasai-rex were willing to listen and potentially agree to his unique terms for them. "I plan to lead you in the near future to an ideal location not too far away from where the firehorn should be positioned. Specifically, I plan to lead you to one end of the entrance to the valley where it lives alongside the pack of firestick wielders and herd of fanged furry horned ones. And once we've arrived, I will need for you to wait until you hear the sound of a longnose roaring three times within that entrance."

"Why not just eat the longnose after we hear it?" The female kasai-rex asked. "Or better yet just immediately come charging into the valley after reaching it?"

"Because doing it the way I'm suggesting will allow higher chances of the firehorn actually being present for you to hunt and eat," the changeling explained patiently. "For you see, firehorns have an immense hatred for longnoses. And as a result, the sound of one roaring ought to be enough to enrage this one into charging towards the entrance from the direction opposite you. And therefore, when you yourselves come charging as well after hearing the longnose roaring three times, the firehorn will have already come charging as well right within your reach!"

The two kasai-rex thought to themselves. "This plan, while somewhat unconventional by our kind's standards, nonetheless holds appeal. Very well, I suppose that we can utilize this new plan of hunting for at least this one time."

"That will be perfect. And it at all possible, there's one other thing I'd like for you to try to do while fighting against the firehorn."

"And what might that be?"

"The area that the firestick wielders and furry horned ones use as their lair," the changeling explained. "It is surrounded by a ring of cliffs made of unnatural sand colored stone, plus one segment made out of equally unnatural flat stone colored after ordinary rock. I can easily bypass these walls. But the others in my pack aren't so lucky. And I will need their help in order for my plans to succeed."

"So how do you wish for us to help in this matter?"

"Simple. I want you to somehow get the firehorn to stab one of those walls surrounding the unwelcome ones' lair."

The two kasai-rex seemed to think to themselves once more. "That is another odd request from you," said the male.

"But if this is what it takes for the unwelcome ones to leave that valley," the female stated, "then we shall do it, just for this once."

"And this once should be all you'll need to do this deed." Beast Boy nodded his head. "Is there any time in particular you'd be willing to have me lead you into position?"

"If you are so certain that this firehorn is in fact present and available for us," said the female, a hungry look of pleasure now on her scaly face as she licked her chops. "Why not now?"

. . . . .

Wildebeest, Jungle Cat, Ambush, and the tribe waited patiently, yet also with slight trepidation, as they waited for the signal from Beast Boy. Not too long ago, they'd felt powerful vibrations erupt from the ground beneath their feet and heard ominous grumbling snarls coming from somewhere outside the clearing as their shapeshifter friend no doubt had led the two kasai-rex past the clearing to where he hoped for them to be positioned for when the time came to sic them on the erumpent. But now, they all kept waiting, half hopeful that things had gone well and half fearful over the possibility that something had gone wrong. Even Dr. Amanda Rookwood couldn't help but feel the same way the changeling's allies were currently feeling. "I hope this goes well," she thought to herself. "If this doesn't work, we could all be doomed, and so could my family…"

The sound of Wildebeest's communicator going off got the entire group's attention, and Wildebeest drew it out to see what had happened while everyone else in the area watched. A smile came on Wildebeest's face, and he gave a thumbs-up. "He did it," said the young mutant. "The two kasai-rex are in place."

"Excellent," said Tawaba. "I presume that means we can now get into position?"

"Correct," said Wildebeest.

"Perfect."

Tawaba nodded his head. "Then let us be off."

The tribe and the three mutants began to depart, with N'jobu pausing only long enough to pick up what appeared to be a small herbal stew he'd brewed during the waiting time before he then departed with his tribe while carefully carrying the stew. Mumbyo and Nyota also briefly hung back. "You do remember the way to where we're currently going, correct?" Mumbyo patiently asked his sister.

The young woman nodded her head. "I do," she said to reassure her brother. She then pointed her finger at Dr. Rookwood, who nodded her own head. "I promise I'll come right on over and meet back up with you all once I've got our unexpected guest from last night taken care of as planned."

"If you say so." Mumbyo nodded his head. "We'll be waiting for you." He stuck around further just long enough for his sister to nod in acknowledgment before he then turned and ran off to catch up with the rest of the group.

Once she was alone with Dr. Rookwood, Nyota turned to face the scientist, a firm look on her face. "You ready?"

Amanda nodded, a determined look on her face. "Whatever it takes," she said as she turned around and entered the burrow where she'd been imprisoned earlier. Nyota nodded her own head in acceptance of this and made sure to pick up the six discarded vines, single discarded leaf, and a small tribal jar filled with a fresh supply of the sticky sap before entering the burrow as well.

About ¼ of an hour later, Amanda was once again tightly bound with the six vines as she'd been before. She reflexively winced as she felt Nyota tighten the last knot in the vine binding her thighs. "Good grief, these are even tighter now than they were before."

"The last person who tied you up had claws and didn't want to risk accidentally loosening your bonds while applying them," Nyota explained. "But since I don't have this limitation, I can make these as tight as absolutely necessary without having to worry about accidentally leaving them damaged or similarly loosened. She gave the bonds three tugs each just to make extra certain that they were exactly as tight as she wanted them to be. "There. With how tight I've got you tied up right now, you'll have no choice but to find the spear head we've carefully hidden in here if you're to have any chance of escaping before the end of the raid." She looked to the once again tied up scientist. "You really sure this is necessary?"

"You currently plan on having me stay here in this burrow," Amanda stated. "That being the case, I figure you might as well go the extra mile. After all, it will be a Hell of a lot more difficult for me to move that boulder out of the way and leave this burrow if I'm all tied up and gagged like I was before. And the less likely I am to successfully leave this burrow, the less likely I'll be to risk ruining things via lingering conflicting loyalties by coming to the lab myself while you're in the midst of raiding it."

"If you say so," Nyota said. She shook her head side to side. "Still don't like having to do this. Especially not after how much you've helped us and how nice you've proven yourself to be compared to your fellow Wildebeest Society members."

"Better safe than sorry." Amanda nodded her head. "Trust me, this is probably for the best. And hey, in the event I do in fact keep myself in here all trussed up and gagged for the entirety of the raid, then you'll get to come right back and free me without any hard feelings between us."

"I certainly hope that will be the case," said Nyota. She moved over to the leaf, picked it up alongside the sap jar, and then moved over to Amanda before getting onto her hands and knees in front of the scientist. She lifted up the leaf and sap jar to ensure Amanda would get a good look and know exactly what was about to happen. "You ready?"

Amanda nodded, and Nyota proceeded to start applying a thick fresh coating of sap to the leaf. The scientist took a deep breath, and exhaled, preparing herself for when the leaf would go back over her mouth. But then her eyes widened and her face paled. She'd just now remembered something important that she now had a feeling she should have mentioned to the shapeshifter. "Wait," she managed to yell just as Nyota finished applying the new coat of sap to the leaf and stretched it taut. "There's something I forgot to tell your friend about the…"

Nyota slapped the leaf over Amanda's mouth. "BBNNHHFFCCTTRR!" Her green eyes widened as she was once again gagged with the thick sticky leaf, her lips getting glued shut tight by the sap. "HHHMMMPPPHHH!" She howled as Nyota pressed on the newly reapplied gag and smoothed it over her mouth.

"I'll be right back to free you," Nyota promised as she finished securing Amanda's gag before then running out of the burrow and starting to lower the boulder back into place. "But if you decide to join us, just look extra carefully to find the spear tip, pistol, and jar of combat powder we hid inside your cell."

"IIBBPPHH HHHSSS HHHNNNCCCLLL!" The scientist screamed, her eyes still widened over her sticky leaf muzzle as she desperately tried to get Nyota to have a good idea of what she needed the shapeshifter to know about Professor Chang's benefactor. "IIBBPPHH HHHSSS HHHNNNCCCLLL!"

"Farewell," said Nyota as the boulder was lowered the last few inches that remained. "For now."

"MMMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHH!" Dr. Rookwood screamed as the boulder was fully lowered into place and rendered firmly plugged into the burrow's entrance once more. No sooner had she finished plugging the entrance to the burrow back up once more when Nyota swiped her spear up into her hands and ran off to join back up with her brother and the rest of the raiding crew, all while the now once again bound and gagged Amanda Rookwood started thrashing and writhing against her bonds, howling and shrieking through her tight floral gag like a drowning lunatic as she found herself now somewhat regretting her willing decision to be rendered a hostage like this once more."

. . . . .

Nicholas Galtry was whistling calmly to himself as he watched the lab security camera footage via a specially installed app on his laptop. Part of him was feeling wary. After all, he'd have had to be a fool to genuinely believe that nothing could possibly go wrong. And the fact that he still didn't see any sign of his nephew arriving certainly didn't help. But at the same time, he also had another feeling, almost like a gut instinct, that he nonetheless had good reason to feel confident and happy about what would happen today.

He turned his head towards his cot, a smile coming on his face as he saw the gene extractor, primed and ready, lying upon the covers. The previous night, the nanobots had, just as he'd hoped, successfully finished their job; and he now had all the data he needed for the animorph mutagen as a result. He'd even already gone ahead and entered in the data for the full sequence into the gene extractor so that it would already be prepared as needed for when he used it on his nephew. All that was needed now, of course, was for said nephew to actually show up.

He took another look at the footage on the various security cameras, even checking the footage from the camera in the erumpent's mind control collar just to be extra safe. So far, things seemed to be going smoothly throughout the lab. The erumpent was peacefully pacing and grazing around in the area directly outside the walls surrounding the lab. The area outside the main building but within the walls were empty of intruders. Professor Chang and his goons were hard at work in carefully loading the latest batch of completed Primetia samples into the designated vault for them. A sizable number of the Wildebeest Society's famed wildebeest hybrid soldiers were shambling through the building's corridors on 'patrol duty' while the rest of the herd grazed in contentment on batches of grass and hay within their 'stables' located within the building's sizable basement. The Wildebeest Society underlings, with the exception of four that were currently doing guard duty in the security camera lounge, were in the midst of target practice with their crossbows. Even the highest-ranking members of the Society could now be seen on the camera footage up to their own specifically chosen tasks. He could see Dr. Azimi lifting some weights in the lab's makeshift gymnasium, his combat titanium knuckles in place upon his fists. He could see Dr. Lagrange sitting on his bed while carefully polishing his rapier. He could see Dr. Morales in the chamber where the four brainwashed 'Project Menagerie subjects' dwelled, and apparently in the midst of trying to 'train' them for the purpose she had in mind for them. He could even see Arronax seemingly lounging in the same chamber as the imprisoned Titans, the latter four seemingly quite angry as they sat within their cell.

In that moment, he found himself briefly feeling slightly more on guard than before as he once again took note of the glaring absence of Dr. Rookwood. He had to admit, as much as he didn't really wish to concern himself all that much with the Wildebeest Society members' personal matters, he couldn't help but wonder if this one particular high-ranking scientist amongst them that was now so obviously absent could perhaps end up leading to trouble unfolding for all their plans for that day. He looked through all the camera footage once more. And like before, he still could not see the blonde high-ranking Wildebeest Society scientist anywhere. She was nowhere to be found inside the main lab building. She was nowhere to be found outside the walls alongside the erumpent. And with the exception of what appeared to be some sort of local hornbill that seemed for some strange reason to be perched upon the interior gate code machine and pecking at the keypad, the exterior area surrounded by the border walls was still completely empty as well…

Galtry suddenly tensed up. "What the?"

He took another look at the footage with the hornbill, his eyes narrowed. His eyes did not deceive him. There was indeed what appeared to be a local hornbill, complete with the exact coloring that would be expected and not at all out of the ordinary for this species, perched upon the code machine on the interior side of the walls. Yet for some odd reason or other, the hornbill in question appeared to be very deliberately pecking its beak against the buttons on the machine's keypad. As if that weren't suspicious enough, immediately after the hornbill pecked the 'enter' key, the walls and gate very briefly glowed blue as the deflector shields materialized into view, only to then vanish once from sight once more within seconds. In that instant, Galtry knew that the deflector shields had now been shut down. And then, seemingly just to add a quirky little bow to this already unusual package, the hornbill departed from its perch and flew right over the walls and into the jungle immediately after the deflector shields had finished shutting down.

Galtry kept his eyes focused entirely on this specific footage, his eyes narrowed into a suspicious glare. Something about what he'd now seen didn't add up. In fact, he'd have hardly believed that it had even actually happened if he hadn't just seen exactly that with his own eyes. Part of him wasn't even sure if it actually was what he currently suspected. After all, the hornbill had been colored exactly the way a bird of that particular species was expected to be colored. It certainly hadn't been green, that was for sure. Yet at the same time, the fact that it had somehow managed to enter in the exact correct code for shutting down the deflector shields and all too conveniently departed back to the jungle immediately after doing so was not something he felt should be ignored. Simply put, despite how the hornbill had looked completely ordinary as far as its coloring was concerned, Galtry just couldn't help but feel that, somehow or other, his nephew had been responsible for the strange turn of events he'd just witnessed. And if that were in fact true, then he had to admit that it was certainly entirely possible now that the missing Dr. Rookwood had perhaps been captured by his nephew and any others who might have accompanied him and managed to torture the code out of her somehow.

He observed the behavior of everyone else in the lab alongside him, taking note of how they didn't seem to be acting as if anything appeared to be out of the ordinary. His eyes narrowed. Then again, now that he really thought about it, he was the only one present in the main lab building at the moment who even seemed to be looking at the security camera footage, let alone paying attention to it. In fact, he could now actually see the four Wildebeest Society underlings who were supposed to be watching the footage in the midst of what appeared to be a game of Go Fish and not even looking at the screens broadcasting the security footage. At the sight of this, Galtry couldn't help but gape uncomprehendingly at the scene. "And I thought that one goon of Professor Chang's I had to shoot dead for his clumsiness was incompetent," he grumbled under his breath. He shook his head. "You'd think they'd have learned by now to stop letting themselves get so overconfident after the successful escape of at least five of their test subjects." For a brief moment, he found himself strongly considering either setting off the alarms or at the very least spreading news of both his current suspicions involving the hornbill and the deflector shields' apparent shutdown to the rest of the people present in the building working with him.

Then he thought to himself some more, now carefully considering if perhaps it would be better for him to keep this current information to himself for the time being. He continued thinking carefully over the matter, gradually finding more and more appeal in this approach. For one, he still didn't even know for sure if the hornbill had even had any involvement with his nephew, let alone _was_ his nephew. And while it was entirely possible that his nephew had perhaps either learned how to communicate with ordinary animals and get them to do his bidding, or perhaps had help from the local tribe that had been performing raids against the Wildebeest Society for a good long while at this point, suspecting as much was very different from actually knowing for sure that either possibility was in fact true. And in the event that it indeed did turn out to just be an unusual moment of circumstance, then he hardly believed that Chang, the Wildebeest Society, or any of their underlings would appreciate getting interrupted in their work over an apparent false alarm.

And now that he thought about it further, what if his suspicions were correct and his nephew indeed was in the area and responsible for the odd turn of events involving the hornbill? For all Galtry himself knew, there was no guarantee that his nephew wouldn't end up panicking and choosing to retreat in the event that there was any sign coming from the lab that would potentially indicate that he'd been found out. And if his nephew indeed did choose to retreat in such an event, then it was entirely likely that Galtry himself would forever lose the chance to get ahold of the animorph mutagen while he still had the chance to successfully use the Primetia cure in the event that the virus was transferred into his bloodstream alongside the mutagen.

And in that instant, he leaned slightly backwards in his chair, placing his hands behind his head in a relaxing position and sighing in contentment. He'd made up his mind. Right now, with so much on the line and his plans seemingly so close to fruition despite now not quite fully unfolding exactly as Chang, Arronax, and himself had originally planned and expected for them to unfold, he now felt it would be much better to just allow the possibility of his nephew being in the area and at work on setting up a surprise entrance of his own strictly to himself. "Let him announce his presence on his own terms," he thought to himself. "That way, there will be less chances of my associates unwittingly scaring him off in their own enthusiasm at being there to greet him and escort him into place. And not only that, but a surprise like this currently seems like something the Wildebeest Society quite honestly deserves after what I've just seen of their current watchmen."

Galtry nodded his head, exited out of the app, and shut down his laptop before he then got up from his desk chair and departed from his room, making sure to take the gene extractor with him as he did so. "And that in mind," he thought to himself. "Now's probably a good time to get myself into position before total chaos potentially ensues."

. . . . .

"I take it the camouflage paint worked?"

Beast Boy nodded, a smile on his face, which now currently had what appeared to be dark black zebra-like stripes painted on it while mixed with specks of powder of various different colors. This same paint and shamanistic powder had been applied a ¼ of an hour ago. And as had now been demonstrated by the changeling himself in his African pied hornbill form, the shamanistic camouflage charm was working like a charm. "It sure did," he whispered while giving N'jobu a thumbs up. "And boy am I glad that I was able to take care of shutting down the deflector shields without having to change from hornbill form to a monkey form."

"I can definitely see what you mean," Mumbyo agreed, nodding his head in the process. As much as N'jobu's camouflage charm had worked wonders, even that charm would hardly explain an ordinary colored hornbill suddenly transforming into a likewise ordinarily colored monkey.

"I am also especially glad that the dream contact potion he brought along likewise proved useful," said Tawaba, well aware of how N'jobu had helped ensure Beast Boy would be able to have his planned talk with the Beast the previous night without having to wait until doing so before going to sleep.

The changeling chuckled. "Me to." He nodded his head towards the shaman once more. "And for that, thanks."

"No problem friend," the shaman responded, nodding his head up and down. "I am very happy that I was able to provide more additional assistance with my shamanistic item collection than I initially thought I'd be able to provide."

"You said it dude. Though I certainly still hope the effects of that shamanistic herbal stew you gave me immediately before you applied the face paint activates in time to make up for how it tasted."

"I daresay I hope the same friend," N'jobu agreed, briefly shuddering at the thought of what the changeling had just brought up. As it had so happened, one other item that N'jobu had brought alongside the paint and powder needed for the camouflage charm, the dream potion, and the powder that had now been left for Dr. Rookwood was a single strange root. On its own in natural form, consumption of it would only result in the mere consumption of a quite disgusting root. But if that same root were cooked into a stew that had the appropriate additional herbs and spices mixed into it, then it would hopefully allow Beast Boy's animal forms to have their natural weapons be magically rendered unbreakable for an entire day.

"Regardless," said Tawaba, a firm look of determination on his face. "Now that this lightning shield is no longer a reason for concern, I must ask if we are all prepared for the coming trial."

The entirety of the gathered tribe warriors nodded their heads, determined looks on their faces as they picked up their weapons and readied themselves to go rushing into battle. Jungle Cat and Ambush snarled, their red and yellow eyes with a predatory intensity as they crouched as if preparing to pounce, bared their teeth, extended their claws, and also made sure to get themselves in a sufficient state of focus to be able to use their already existing metahuman powers that their mutations had helped awaken. Wildebeest snorted, clasped his hands together, and then stretched both his arms forward in a 'bring it' gesture.

Beast Boy smiled, his green eyes agleam and all his teeth, including fangs, on full display. "Perfect," he purred. He nodded his head. "In that case, I'll head right over to the valley's entrance to get the kasai-rex and erumpent to start fighting each other. While they're fighting, I'll make sure to keep watch so that I can give you the agreed upon signal immediately after they've gotten our planned entrance route set up."

"We'll be waiting," Tawaba stated, the rest of the assembled 'army' likewise nodding their heads in agreement.

"Awesome." And at that, Beast Boy shifted into a colobus monkey, climbed up a tree, and swung through the trees across all 20 feet between the raiding party and the entrance path to the valley. He shifted into a gaboon viper immediately after reaching the entrance path and slithered down the path. No sooner had he reached the exact center of this path when he shifted into his African elephant form. "Here goes nothing," he thought to himself as he lifted his trunk for the sake of what he was about to do.

The erumpent was in the midst of peacefully grazing when it heard a loud trumpeting bellow coming from nearby. The beast tensed up, an alerted snort coming out of its mouth and its ears standing on end. It looked around briefly, wondering where that trumpeting noise had come from. Then it seemed to relax after not hearing the noise a second time and not seeing or smelling the animal responsible for said noise. It lowered its head to resume its grazing…only to then tense up again when a second trumpeting bellow filled the air.

The erumpent lifted its head and looked directly in the direction that the two trumpeting bellows had come from, an ominous rumbling bubbling up from its mouth as it glared towards what it now strongly believed to be one of its biggest rivals lying in wait to issue a territory challenge. It pawed its feet and swished its tail in preparation for a battle. "Snakenoses," it thought to itself angrily, its natural thoughts meshing perfectly with the orders it was receiving from the mysterious ring of metal around its neck. "They think they own everything." It pawed its left front foot once more. "Well if this one dares challenge me again, then by the Great Spirit I _will_ give it a challenge…"

A third trumpeting bellow filled the air, at which point the erumpent completely lost its temper. "THAT'S IT!" With an apoplectic bellow of rage, it stomped its front feet, swung its head left and right, pawed its left front foot one more time, and then snorted in fury, complete with its reddish-brown eyes burning with fury. With another outraged bellow, it lunged forward and started to charge headlong towards the small 'gorge' that led to the jungle outside the valley. The sound of heavy footsteps approaching from the opposite direction only further emboldened it into continuing its charge. Before long, it reached the valley entrance…only to then find itself bellowing in horror and trying desperately to skid to a stop at the unexpected sight of a pair of kasai-rex barreling straight towards it.

"HHHRRRUUUMMM!"

"VVVOOOAAARRR!"

In a flash, the male rex lunged forward, snapped its jaws around the erumpent's collar encased neck, the combined weight of both animals, plus the force and speed of the impact, caused the erumpent and kasai-rex to both tumble over and roll right back into the valley. The dinosaur was the first to get back on its feet, and it turned its head just in time to let out a hungry snarling hiss at the temporarily downed erumpent as it struggled to get back on its own feet. The now equal parts enraged, and equal parts terrified herbivore had literally just gotten back on its feet and bellowed at the male kasai-rex when it was suddenly knocked aside off its feet once more by virtue of the female ramming her head against the erumpent's right side.

The erumpent went sprawling, but practically forced itself to start thrashing to get back on its feet as the female kasai-rex was still in the midst of standing nearby and roaring tauntingly at her would-be prey. It turned to face its would-be hunter, bellowing in rage, only to then snort in surprise and pain when the male rex abruptly charged in from the side and bit the erumpent on the shoulder while simultaneously latching its clawed hands on both sides of where its jaws were now positioned. The erumpent was still distracted by this development long enough for the female to latch her own jaws and hands around the center of the beast's horn, hoping to try to pull it down and take the erumpent down with it.

But the erumpent was not about to give up that easily. With another bellow, it lifted both of its front feet off the ground and slammed them down on the two dinosaurs' toes. Snarling reflexively from the pain of this injury, the two kasai-rex let go of the erumpent. In a flash, it swung its horn, causing the female rex to go staggering aside thanks to a glancing thud to her neck. The male noticed this, and reflexively roared in rage at the erumpent before it too was sent staggering away by a smack to the neck, but this time from the erumpent's tail. And unlike its mate, it was luckless enough to end up completely losing its footing, sprawling across the ground on its belly as a result.

The erumpent turned to completely face the temporarily downed carnivore, snorting and pawing its left front foot in rage as it prepared to charge. Unfortunately, it was so focused now on the temporarily downed dinosaur it now intended to permanently down that it completely forgot about said dinosaur's mate. And sure enough, right as the erumpent was about to start charging, it was suddenly sent flying aside with a shocked bellow after getting abruptly engulfed by a gigantic jet of the female kasai-rex's literally blood red fiery breath. The force of the impact was so great that the erumpent was sent flying straight into one of the walls surrounding the main lab building. And by sheer happenstance, the way the erumpent's head had been positioned, the impact of the flames causing it turn around midair so its head was directly facing the wall it slammed against, and the no longer active status of the deflector shields allowed the beast's horn to impale the very center of the area it had been slammed against.

The erumpent managed to get back onto its feet, at which point it started furiously jerking itself backwards in a desperate to extract its horn from the concrete wall that it was now impaling, too frightened and desperate to get free before the two kasai-rex potentially took advantage of its current trapped state to realize the fact that its horn was even stuck at all, let alone the fact that it was not being engulfed in the painful electricity that had always prevented situations like this before.

As this happened, the two kasai-rex stood back, watching from a safe distance with a look of hungry triumph in their eyes as they waited for what they knew would happen within the next few minutes. Beast Boy also watched from a distance, perched on the edge of a nearby cliff on the valley's walls in his vulture form as he too waited for the inevitable. And sure enough, at the sight of acrid lime green bubbles fizzing around the edges of the hole in the concrete encircling the base of the erumpent's horn and similarly acrid lime green mist rising rapidly into the air from where the bubbles were located, Beast Boy would have gladly let a giddy grin come on his face if he'd been capable of doing as much in his current form. As he watched, the bubbling started to become faster, and larger amounts of bubbles and mist began to appear from the area in which the horn was stabbed, all while the erumpent continued furiously struggling to pull itself free. Before long, an unnerving hissing sound filled the air as the liquid responsible for the bubbles started to seep down onto the grassy ground near the erumpent's front feet and the mist seemed to thicken to the point of forming a gigantic plume of green smoke. The two kasai-rex took three steps back, licking their chops and grumbling in triumphant anticipation of what would soon be their ideal moment to charge in and finish off the erumpent. After all, now that they'd achieved what their mysterious informant had wanted them to do for him, they were reasonable sure that they could now go ahead and finish the beast off so they could drag it back to their nest and eat it together.

Sure enough, seconds later, after one last vaporous hissing noise, the stabbed wall segment violently exploded into countless fragments, a thunderous boom similar to a geyser going off filling the air alongside the bellowing of the erumpent as it too was sent flying backwards from the force of the explosion. The collar around its neck, already partially damaged from when the male kasai-rex had bitten its neck at the start of the battle, was now completely detached from the erumpent's neck and sent flying into the sky before landing right next to the still perched Beast Boy. No sooner had the erumpent landed painfully on its side and all the concrete fragments likewise come to a landing when the two kasai-rex roared and started rushing like lightning straight to the downed herbivore. The erumpent had just enough time to open its eyes and very briefly notice that the feedback from the collar was no longer present in its mind before it noticed the two kasai-rex were now literally seconds away from reaching it, jaws open and already prepared to deal the final blow. Its final panicked bellow of despair was almost instantly drowned out by the sound of the two kasai-rex roaring triumphantly in unison before they proceeded to viciously bite the erumpent, the male biting the horn and the female biting the neck, and jerk the erumpent's head forward sufficiently enough to snap its neck, at which point the sound of an ominous crack filled the air.

And at the exact same moment in which the erumpent was killed, Beast Boy had already flown into position on the branches of a tree on the other side of the valley's walls, shifted into an African gray parrot, and loudly squawked in the direction of his assembled allies, "WE ARE CLEAR FOR ENTRY! I REPEAT, WE ARE CLEAR FOR ENTRY!"

. . . . .

The four Wildebeest Society grunts currently on duty for watching the security camera footage were seemingly right on the verge of finally ending their game of Go Fish when the alarms suddenly started going off. Caught completely off guard, the four now white faced and wide-eyed underlings all reared up in their chairs, cards getting sent flying as they all reflexively raised their hands, one of them even falling backwards as the force of his movement caused his chair to tip over backwards. Their shock and horror only intensified when they finally looked at the security footage, only to notice a gaping hole that had now been unexpectedly blown into the walls surrounding the lab building, the glaringly 'offline' status of the camera that had been built into the erumpent's collar, and the erumpent itself in the midst of being violently killed by a pair of t-rex-like creatures with spinosaur-like sails on their backs. They looked each other in the eyes, mutually horrified looks on all their faces as they realized just how bad things were about to get. And what was worse, as they now all too bitterly realized, it had all managed to unfold right under their own noses.

Immediately, three of them hurried to gather up their crossbows and bolts while the fourth hurried over to the intercom and set it to broadcast mode while positioning his head in front of the microphone. "There's been a breach in security!" He yelled. "I repeat, there's been a breach in security! This is not a drill!"

The sound of warlike screaming and a massive amount of running feet drew all four of the men's attention back to the cameras; at which point their faces paled yet again at the sight of what appeared to be a small army's worth of invaders. And amongst this army were a sizable number of dark skinned warriors dressed in the distinctive attire of the raiding local tribe, three humanoid animal mutants instantly recognizable as three of the Wildebeest Society's escaped projects, and a green skinned boy that they had all the reason to believe was the shapeshifter that was supposed to be visiting that day.

The sight of this army starting to stampede through the gaping hole in the wall and towards the main lab building's front door galvanized the guard on the intercom to hurriedly make another announcement. "Invaders approaching! I repeat, invaders approaching! Arm yourselves and prepare for battle! This is not a drill!"

Meanwhile, on the outside of the main lab building, the invading raiding party swarmed straight towards the front doors, with Beast Boy turning into a triceratops while still running at the very front of the group. In that instant, with the shamanistic camouflage charm still in place, the triceratops form now had amber scales, gray horns, and red stripes on its back, tail, and crest instead of the usual green and black color scheme that came with the form. He could have easily allowed Wildebeest to use Dr. Rookwood's willingly gifted keycard to unlock the doors and open them without too much trouble, but the shapeshifter had felt in the mood to allow this particular set of doors to be an opportunity to make an impressionable entrance. And so, with a half triumphant and half enraged bellow, the dinosaur rammed its horned head against the lab building's front doors, bursting them off their hinges and sending them rocketing backwards before coming to a stop in the very center of the entrance chamber, at which point they fell flat on the floor with a clang.

With a metallic beep, three large turret guns dropped down from the ceiling, barrels glowing with dark red energy as they pointed straight towards Beast Boy and the rest of the raiders. Tawaba, Mumbyo, and Nyota were quick to react, and they rushed past Beast Boy and into the chamber before hurling their spears in unison. Each of the three spears slammed, point-first into the still charging up turret guns. The guns, now completely impaled by the spears, became engulfed in crackling electricity before they then exploded into ash and smoke without even getting the chance to fire.

"Waste of a good spear," said Nyota as she glared at the ash that remained of her spear lying amongst the similar ash that remained of the turret guns, plus the spears her father and brother had used.

"But its sacrifice will not be in vain," said Mumbyo as he drew his specially forged tribal sword from its sheath.

"Indeed it won't," Nyota growled in agreement as she drew her own tribal sword from its sheath.

"We are in agreement," said Tawaba, his own particularly impressive looking tribal sword, which he'd inherited from his own father the previous chieftain king and he now planned to gift to whoever got picked to be his successor as the tribe's leader, already being drawn from its sheath just as the comparatively lesser swords wielded by his son and daughter were drawn from their own sheaths. And at the same time the chieftain king drew out his mighty sword, he also drew out a similarly inherited tribal shield that had been strapped to his back and got it into position. The rest of the present tribe warriors likewise prepared their spears and other weapons in time to be prepared for when the doors on the opposite side of the entrance chamber opened up and a large squadron of golden armored wildebeest hybrid soldiers burst into the room, bellowing in challenge with their fangs bared and red eyes agleam with bloodlust.

The very first of the hybrids let out a bellow and swung a haymaker at Tawaba, only for its fist to slam painfully against the very center of the chieftain king's shield. The hybrid reflexively drew its hand back, screaming in pain as its knuckle throbbed from the impact, only to then tense up with a strangled gurgling as Tawaba's sword abruptly sprung out like a snake and stabbed it right in its unarmored chest and straight through its heart. Tawaba withdrew his sword from the hybrid's chest, and the fatally wounded hybrid crumpled to the floor, dead before it even fully hit the ground. A second hybrid charged towards Tawaba, bellowing in challenge as it drew back its right fist, only to crumple to a stop with a surprised squeal as a swing of Mumbyo's own sword sliced through its neck and decapitated it. A third hybrid at the front of the group fared no better, as it was interrupted, mid-charge, just like its beheaded herd mate when Nyota first brought it down on one knee by slicing her sword across its right femoral artery, then sliced off both its horns, and then jabbed the pointy ends of both horns into its chin and straight to its throat. The hybrid tensed up, gurgling weakly as it choked on its own blood before it then closed its eyes with a last dying wheeze.

Beast Boy, now back in human form, couldn't help but whistle in half awe and half fear at the sight of Nyota's opponent's particularly gruesome death. "Remind me to never piss you off."

"I daresay what I just did is reminder enough," she hissed as she let go of the horns she'd just killed her enemy with and reclaimed her sword.

In that instant, while the rest of the hybrid squadron stood still in uncertainty over how to act, the rest of the tribal warriors present surged forward, already preparing and casting their spears. Within seconds, a vast number of the hybrids joined the three previously slain hybrids with piercing screams as the spears hit them in their hearts and various other vulnerable areas left exposed by their largely decorative golden armor. But even as the majority of their comrades went down and died in agony, ten of the hybrids proved much braver. Grumbling in rage and hate, the ten considerably braver of the remaining hybrids in the room tensed themselves up, clenching their fists and baring their fanged teeth in silent snarls of rage.

But even they found their courage rapidly evaporating when none other than Jungle Cat jumped over the hybrids' would-be opponents, landed right between the hybrids and invaders, and roared at them, his red eyes blazing with rage, teeth bared, and claws fully extended. The sight of this was the last straw for the ten hybrids, and they all turned around and dashed headlong back out the way they'd entered, bellowing and screaming in panic as they desperately fled from this humanoid version of the beast they were instinctively conditioned to fear. Jungle Cat, seemingly eager to get them out of the area himself, helped them on their way out with a blast of his ultrasonic roar, which sent the now further panicked hybrids rocketing out of the room and very far down the corridor immediately outside the entrance chamber. No sooner were the ten still living hybrids completely out of sight and hearing range when Jungle Cat cupped his paw-like hands around his mouth and yelled, "AND STAY AWAY YOU WALKING SACKS OF GROUND BEEF!"

No sooner had Jungle Cat yelled this when the very same four Wildebeest Society underlings that had been earlier responsible for watching the security camera footage dashed into view from a side corridor and entered the entrance chamber, crossbows already armed and ready to fire. "Halt!" Yelled one of the new arrivals. "In the name of the…"

Wildebeest suddenly lunged into view, landing on the floor in a way that allowed for both his clenched fists to slam hard against the floor, the shockwave produced by the impact of his fists, strengthened further by the impact of his hoof-like feet against the floor prior to the moment his fists struck, was enough to knock the four guards off their feet and cause them to harmlessly drop their crossbows, the bolts harmlessly bouncing out of aimed position and across the floor. The four guards were hurriedly in the midst of trying to get back on their feet when Wildebeest grabbed onto one of the detached doors, lifted it off the floor, and swung it right at them as if it were a baseball bat. The door banged into the four guards and sent them all flying off in the same direction that the ten scared off adult wildebeest hybrids had been sent flying, screaming like little girls in unison from both the pain of the door's impact against them and the fact that they were rocketing through the air far away from the intruders they'd been planning to try to take out.

"Nice one dude!" Beast Boy yelled.

"Pleasure's all mine buddy," Wildebeest replied, clearly happy.

"Let us advance!" Tawaba yelled. With a triumphant cheer of agreement in unison, the entire raiding party started charging forward into the corridors outside the entrance chamber. No sooner had the entire raiding party exited the entrance chamber and the doors closed, however, when they all suddenly found themselves surrounded by a mass group of none other than Professor Chang's goons, who now all had their laser rifles primed and aimed straight at the raiding party.

"Don't. Move. A muscle," growled a deep voiced goon standing in front of Beast Boy and Tawaba that appeared to be the leader of this specific group. "Or we'll all fire at once."

The assembled raiders all glanced into each other's eyes, clearly uncertain as to just what to do. Beast Boy eventually took a quick glance out the corner of his eyes towards the goons, a look on his face indicating he was considering trying to make a quick transformation so he could take them out, gambling on the hope he'd succeed in time to prevent any of them from firing.

The apparent leader of the group pointed his gun closer towards the shapeshifter. "Don't even think about it," he said. "So much as turn into even a mouse and we'll all fire. You should all just give up now and hand yourselves in while you still can before things get messy. There's not much else you can do considering…"

The goon paused, and then briefly lowered his gun "What the…?" The raiders, and even the rest of the goons, were all confused as the lead goon then pointed at a seemingly empty space in between Jungle Cat and Wildebeest. "I could have sworn…"

The goon suddenly stumbled backwards as if something had punched him in the face, his gun lifting up from his reflexive arm raising and his finger pressing the trigger.

"GET DOWN!" Jungle Cat yelled, and he and the rest of the raiders all hurriedly got down on the floor in time to avoid getting hit by the mass salvo of lasers that went flying from all directions when the single errant blast from the leader's gun resulted in all the gathered goons' guns going off as a result of their fingers already being positioned on the triggers at the moment they all got accidentally blasted by each other's weapons.

When the web of blasts finally stopped, the lead goon, apparently still conscious, managed to turn his head in time to start gaping uncomprehendingly at the unharmed rebels and all his unconscious fellow goons. "What the?"

His laser rifle abruptly leaped out of his hand as if something had snatched it out before then bopping him hard on the back of his head. He tensed up, a confused grunt popping out of his masked mouth, and then, with a final groan of pain, he fell flat on his face on the floor, completely out cold. The levitating gun suddenly leaped upwards and then fell on the floor; at which point none other than Ambush rematerialized from her state of invisibility, revealing herself to have activated her powers and been responsible for both triggering the mass volley of errant blaster fire as well as the newly discarded gun seemingly moving through the air on its own. She placed her hands on her hips, a wide smile on her face as her yellow eyes seemed to glow with pride. "How did I do?" The black leotard clad blonde tigress mutant asked, a flirtatious look on her face as she gazed straight at Jungle Cat.

The lion mutant smiled, a toothy grin coming on his furry face, and gave his girlfriend a thumbs up. "Not bad Ambush," he stated. "Excellent work."

Ambush gave a mock pout. "Is that really the best you can do?" She asked in mock annoyance.

Jungle Cat narrowed his eyes and gestured at all the other raiders. "It is when in front of all these other people."

Ambush looked at the rest of the raiding party, seemingly having been reminded of the fact that they were even there. A large blush came on her furry face as she let out an embarrassed chuckle leave her jaws over having very nearly gotten herself and Jungle Cat behaving a little too intimately in front of such a large crowd. "Ok," she admitted sheepishly. "I suppose when you put it that way…"

"You can flirt later," said Wildebeest. "Right now, we need to get moving."

"Agreed," said Tawaba. He looked to Beast Boy. "Tell us friend, how shall we proceed?" Mumbyo, Nyota, N'jobu, and all the other tribespeople present, plus the three mutants, looked to the shapeshifter, who nodded his head. He then pointed at Wildebeest.

"Wildebeest," he stated. "You think you can find your way around this place?"

The young mutant nodded. "I think I got a good enough look at the map, and it's still on my communicator just in case." A smile came on his face as he thought of just what he was now likely to be assigned to do. "And before you ask, yes I still have Dr. Rookwood's keycard on me."

"Good, then I'll be trusting you to reach that ancillary lab chamber she mentioned and get Rob, Star, Cyborg, and Raven out of there."

"You can count on me buddy," Wildebeest responded, flashing a thumbs up to the changeling.

"I'm counting on it dude." Beast Boy looked to Ambush, Jungle Cat, and all the assembled tribe warriors. "The rest of you guys? Feel free to spread out through the entire building. Group up or go solo as you wish, and feel free to confiscate some keycards from defeated enemies if you feel like you might need to go into any rooms, and also some communicators if possible so we'll have a means of communicating if we need it. And make sure to fight off and defeat as many of the enemies in here as you can. Feel free to deal with the hybrid soldiers however you wish; but try your best if at all possible to only knock out any human opponents. And if you see those four friends of mine that are currently held prisoner here out in the open with you, try your best not to harm them."

"Understood," said Mumbyo.

"What he said," said Nyota.

"Excellent." The shapeshifter clasped his hands together, fingers intertwining. "And as for me, I'll be heading off to find that vault with the antidote. Right now, I'm getting the feeling that I'll need it within the near future and that this is my best chance at getting ahold of it."

"Say no more," said Tawaba. He nodded his head. "Good luck friend."

"Right back at you." Beast Boy snapped his fingers. "Let's move everyone." And at that, the changeling turned into a vulture and flew off down one of the corridors, the rest of the raiding party likewise splitting into various smaller groups and charging off in whatever direction they felt the best way to go, all of them already ready and eager to battle and defeat any enemies still present in the area; but not without a respectable number of them pausing and snatching keycards and communicators off of the unconscious goons who'd been surrounding them earlier, just in case.

. . . . .

"MMMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHH!" Amanda Rookwood cried, her green eyes shut tight and blonde hair flying as she struggled to get free. At that particular moment, she was still exactly as Nyota had left her. She was still sealed away inside the burrow under the largest tree in the raiding party's campsite, the vines binding her still remained as inescapably tight as Nyota had rendered them, and the thick leaf slathered with that horrid tasting sticky tree sap even now remained firmly clamped over her mouth. And all despite having spent possibly an entire hour, plus maybe a few extra minutes longer, struggling and whining like a woman possessed.

In any other circumstances, she would have felt a sense of despair at her seemingly quite inescapable state of captivity. But right now, she felt far too irritated and angry too feel any sort of sadness or despair. "Amanda, you idiot," she thought irritably to herself as she continued bucking and kicking against her bonds and grunting and squeaking like a mental ward patient through her sticky leaf muzzle. "How could you have forgotten that one safe fact you could have mentioned about the benefactor?!"

And indeed she did feel immensely annoyed and angry at herself for having forgotten to mention that one potentially quite vital bit of information. For all she know, it was a fact that the shapeshifter, if not the entire raiding party, could have potentially found immensely important and useful to know about before initiating their planned raid that day. And now, as a direct result of her late remembrance of this fact, plus her own impulsive and overly cautious insistence, the raid had likely already started with complete unawareness of this one last bit of information while she herself had allowed herself to be willingly left stuck in her former makeshift prison cell, tied up, her mouth sealed shut, unable to move or speak. And so, instead of relaxing in her bondage with full confidence that very little could potentially go wrong over the course of the raid she'd helped allow otherwise higher chances of success, she was instead thrashing and writhing against the thick vines binding her while simultaneously roaring and squealing like a muzzled ox through the large sticky sap coated leaf blocking her mouth.

"HHHRRRFFFRRRMMMHHH!" Amanda howled, flopping like a fish in her desperate attempts to free herself from her bonds. "GGGNNNGGGHHH!" She growled, her voice still hopelessly muffled by the gag. Still refusing to give up, she continued to struggle and whine. "HHHHMMMMPPPPHHHH! GGGGMMMMPPPPHHHH! WWWWMMMMPPPPHHHH! BBBBMMMMPPPPHHHH! MMMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHH!" She roared, eyes once again clenched shut and blonde hair whipping about like a whirlwind as she continued her furious efforts to free herself from her bonds and overpower her gag. "I can't give up," she thought desperately to herself. "I've got to help them…warn them…" But despite all her vicious struggling and incoherent muffled shrieking, she continued to have no luck. The vines binding her held fast, keeping her prisoner in the sealed burrow. The sticky leaf gagging her likewise remained in place, keeping her mouth shut and her voice nice and muffled beyond hope of easy translation. Simply put, Nyota had done her work far too well; exactly as Amanda herself, as she now bitterly remembered once more, had insisted be done out an overly strong sense of caution.

Eventually, she found herself forced to take a break from her struggles as a result of sheer fatigue. She very reluctantly lay still, her head now leaning against one of the walls of her makeshift cell, her body still tensed up against the vines, snorting through her gag in a mixture of exhaustion and irritation. "Fckng Hhll," she groaned, eyes narrowed venomously over her floral muzzle. She directed her narrow-eyed glare towards the ceiling of her underground prison. At her current rate, she seemed to have absolutely no choice _but_ to just remain where she was as she'd originally planned and hope for the best. Yet at the same time, she just felt as if she'd have no chance of relaxing and having full confidence of the raid's success unless she somehow escaped and managed to either pass along fair warning of that last detail she'd forgotten to mention or somehow actively join in and take part in the fight herself. She turned her head to gaze blankly to her right, stewing away in her funk. "I guess the joke's on me now," she thought bitterly to herself. "Good grief, there's no way I'll get free at this rate. Not without some sort of sharp tool…"

She then happened to notice what appeared to be the detached tip of a spear carefully jammed into position between two particularly closely positioned roots sticking out of the cavern ceiling just inches away from the wall at the end of the cavern. She raised her eyebrow, briefly feeling confused as to why someone would have left such an obvious escape aid tool here for her. But then her eyes widened as she remembered a specific detail she'd completely forgotten about in her earlier irritation and desperation to escape. "That's right," she thought to herself, half in annoyance over having only now remembered and half in joyous relief at just what the newly remembered information meant for her. "They specifically hid that spear point, plus my pistol and a jar of shamanistic 'combat powder' within this burrow for me to use just in case I decided it was worth the risk to try to escape and join them in the raid!" She nodded her head, green eyes agleam with joy. "Now I can definitely get free in time to hopefully help them somehow." For another brief moment, her eyes narrowed as she attempted to see if she could figure out where her pistol and the combat powder jar had been hidden. Then she shook her head side to side. "First thing's first," she thought to herself. "Get that spear point and free yourself. _Then_ you can worry about finding your weapons."

Now focused entirely on acquiring the spear tip and using it to get free, she laboriously got herself out of her earlier relaxed position and then rolled herself into position so that she was lying flat on her stomach. No sooner had she done so when she then started determinedly crawling her way across the cavern floor towards the location of the spear tip, moving her bound body in a style very similar to that of an inchworm in the process. "Hhhgggmmmppphhh, mmmppphhh," she grunted as she dragged herself forward another couple inches. "Hhhgggmmmppphhh, mmmppphhh!"

"You can do this," she thought to herself, eyes still narrowed determinedly over her sticky leaf gag as she slowly inched her bound body closer and closer to the spear tip's position. "You can do this." She was getting close now, so very close. "Hhhlllmmmnnnppphhh ttthhhrrr," she snorted out loud in encouragement. "Hhhlllmmmnnnppphhh ttthhhrrr."

She made it all the way to the tail end of the cavern, at which point she rolled over onto her back, slid herself up so that her back was against the wall, and lifted up her bound legs to start kicking at the two roots holding the spear tip, trying to dislodge the all-important escape tool from their grasp. For what felt like an eternity she kept kicking at the roots, grunting and squeaking through her gag in a mixture of irritation and self-encouragement. "Hhhmmm-bbbmmmppphhh," she snorted as she gave the roots yet another kick. At this point, she could tell that the spear tip was now seeming to become increasingly on the verge of being dislodged. "Hhhmmm-bbbmmmppphhh!" The spear tip was practically inches away from falling! "Just one more," she thought to herself as she prepared herself for one last powerful kick. And sure enough, much to her joy, this final kick was enough to dislodge the spear tip from its positioning amongst the tree roots and cause it to fall on the cavern floor directly in front of her.

After a very laborious effort, she managed to get herself and the spear tip positioned so that she had the sharp weapon fragment positioned directly behind her back with its tip resting against the vine binding her wrists. And with this status achieved, the scientist started carefully moving her arms up and down, allowing the spear tip to gradually saw away at the first of her soon to be sliced up bonds. "Slow and steady," she thought to herself, making sure not to give into the temptation to try to hurry the process up. After all, the last thing she wanted was to accidentally knock the spear tip out of position, or worse get herself cut or stabbed. And as she continued to carefully work to free herself, the vine binding her hands gradually becoming looser and looser as the spear tip allowed an increasingly large fray to appear in it, she thought comfortingly about her family back at home; the one that, if everything went well today, she'd soon finally have the freedom to potentially reunite with again without ever having to worry about the Wildebeest Society harming her or them. "Don't worry Finn," she thought to herself. "And don't worry Lucy and Henry. I'll be home soon. I promise."

. . . . .

Tawaba was a force to be reckoned with as he indiscriminately cut down every hostile wildebeest hybrid soldier that came at him with his sword while also using his shield, fists, feet, and occasionally the pommel or flat side of his sword to knock out or similarly put out of commission the equally large number of human assailants that came his way. Nyota and Mumbyo were similarly fighting like a whirlwind together against the multiple wildebeest hybrids, Wildebeest Society grunts, and Chang goons attempting to go after them and their father.

At this point, everyone else in the tribe was off fighting enemies elsewhere in the building while the chieftain king and his children fought bravely together in what appeared to be some sort of arena-like chamber located within the lab's basement. They'd initially been fighting within one of the corridors on the ground floor when they'd happened to notice a small squadron of hybrids abruptly come rushing out of a door to what turned out to be a wooden lift designed to serve as an elevator to the basement. Realizing that this now looked an ideal time to potentially prevent the enemy from receiving what appeared to be specially set aside reinforcements, the trio had jumped aboard the lift right as it was about to go down again for another load. And now, here they were, with all but one of the arena corridors leading to the herd's living quarters sealed off and seemingly the entirety of the hybrid soldiers that hadn't already come up to the upper level to fight gradually coming out to try to fight their way past what had become a quite formidable roadblock in their attempts at leaving the arena to fight for their masters. And to make matters happier, the number of hybrids rushing out to attack, after a considerably lengthy and difficult battle, finally appeared to be winding down. And sure enough, after the last five to come rushing into the arena finally went down, the entirety of the herd that hadn't already gone to the upper level before the arrival of Tawaba, Mumbyo, and Nyota appeared to have been taken out.

Nyota placed her sword on the arena floor and placed her hands on her knees while bending over and panting in exhaustion. "That was insane," she growled tiredly.

"I hear you," Mumbyo agreed, leaning against his own sword as he placed the tip on the floor and used it as an anchor to lean upon to rest. "Though I must admit, I don't entirely feel happy that we ended up having to kill all of them. They were only following their instincts, and since I highly doubt we'll be eating any of them or similarly making use of them now that they're dead, it feels like a bit of waste of life to have killed so many of them, even in self-defense."

"Sometimes we must do unpleasant things in impossible situations," Tawaba stated. He nodded his head, a sage-like look of wisdom on his face. "Maybe if we're lucky, we'll be able to get a sizable number of these bodies out in the open jungle where they can be eaten by local carnivores. But for now, we'd all best rest for a few minutes before we rejoin our comrades on the upper level." Both of his children nodded in agreement. This plan certainly sounded reasonable enough.

"Oh you think you're finished down here huh?"

In a flash, Tawaba and his children tensed up, already back on guard, with Nyota even managing to snatch her sword very swiftly off the floor and back into her hands. That unexpected deep reverberating voice from within the single unlocked arena tunnel did not sound at all pleasant. And neither did the loud and heavy footsteps that they soon heard coming from that same tunnel alongside an unnerving chuckling. And before long, it soon became clear that there was more than one heavy being on the way to the arena.

Then the beings responsible for this noise stepped out of the tunnel and into the light of the arena's ceiling lamp, and the chieftain family trio felt their hearts sink. Thirteen more wildebeest hybrid soldiers now stood before them. And unlike all the others that had been encountered before, these ones were covered in snowy white fur and were dressed in blood red copper looking armor. They were also quite frighteningly even taller, more muscular, and all around tougher looking then all the golden armored wildebeest hybrids that they'd seen up to this point. And even worse, their horns were longer and sharper, two of their fangs jutted out of their jaws like demonic tusks, and they had unusually long and sharp claw-like fingernails. Just one of them would likely prove an immensely tough nut to crack, and there were thirteen of them. But then the one at the very front of the group suddenly started chuckling, an immensely unnerving noise that gradually evolved into laughter until the hybrid eventually got to the point of letting a nightmare making maniacal cackling burst from its mouth, its yellow eyes agleam with a deranged joy.

At this point, Tawaba, Mumbyo, and Nyota were fighting with all their willpower not to lose their composure or similarly allow any sign of their fear to show. They now had a bad feeling that things were about to get immensely unpleasant for them in the near future. Then the apparent leader of this group of hybrids stopped laughing and directed a smug look of malevolent glee towards the chieftain king, prince, and princess. "Welcome to our home, tribe royalty," it said, speaking in the exact same deep reverberating voice they'd heard from the tunnel not too long ago. "You have done well against our brethren. But now…"

He chuckled again, deliberately making sure the three 'tribe royalty' members, already seemingly stunned by the fact that it could talk, got a good look at every single one of its teeth; all of which, unlike with Wildebeest and the golden armored hybrids, consisted entirely of fangs. "It is time. To die."

. . . . .

With a mighty roar, Jungle Cat sent a massive group of wildebeest hybrids who'd tried to surround him flying. The hybrids all crashed against the walls of the corridor, crumpling to the floor out cold immediately afterward. A trio of Chang goons immediately tried to rush up to him, one of them from behind, another from his left, and a third from his right. But the lion mutant was already prepared to take them on. The one to his right was smacked away by a swing of his right arm against the goon's stomach. The goon to his left went down next when the lion mutant jumped off the floor and whipped his tail against the luckless goon's throat, twirling a complete 360 in midair in the process. And no sooner had Jungle Cat landed when he dealt a donkey style back kick to the goon behind him, his two paw-like feet bopping the man right in the face and sending him rocketing backward. All of two seconds later, five Wildebeest Society grunts slid into view and fired their crossbows at him in unison. Naturally, these five opponents fared no better, as another burst of the mutant's ultrasonic roar shattered the bolts into splinters in midair and sent all five of the crossbow wielders flying backward. "Man this feels good," he thought to himself. "After all the time I've spent under their thumb, afraid of them, and forced to give them a wide berth despite the fact that they were still holding friends of mine hostage, it sure is a dream come true to _finally_ beat the ever loving tar out of them! And unlike last time, we now actually have a fair chance at winning!"

Ambush, who happened to be in the exact same corridor, was likewise having the time of her life mercilessly beating up the foes foolish enough to try to attack her. Wildebeest hybrids, Wildebeest Society grunts, and Chang mooks alike all got sent dropping like flies as she fiercely fought them off, her yellow eyes agleam, a euphoric grin on her face, and her blonde hair flying. And unlike her boyfriend, who seemed to have already settled himself into a very specific set of moves for his fighting style, pragmatically made use of just about _every_ technique and form of attack she could think of. "Take this," she yelled as she pounded one of the Wildebeest Society grunts in the face with a thundering right hook, managing to reflexively catch the man's crossbow when the impact of her punch to his face caused him to let go of it. "And this," she snarled as she subsequently pounded another Wildebeest Society grunt in the face with his previously punched colleague's crossbow, shattering the makeshift bludgeon in the process. "How about one of _these_," she then yelled as she dealt a gymnastics style high kick with her right foot to the chin of a third Wildebeest Society grunt who'd been attempting to charge at her from behind.

"You tell em bush baby," Jungle Cat yelled, clearly proud of his girlfriend's combat skills as he first punched a Chang goon in the face and then jumped backwards in time for two hybrids trying to charge at him from opposing sides to end up colliding against each other instead.

Ambush couldn't help but briefly giggle at the on the fly pet name her boyfriend had just now referred to her by. "Right back at you kit cat," she purred in response before she then reached behind her, snatched away the laser rifle that had been in the hands of the Chang goon who'd been about to try to shoot her, and then jabbed the barrel end down hard on the would-be shooter's foot without even turning to look at him. The luckless foe had literally _just_ started hissing from the blow to his foot when Ambush then banged him in the privates with the stock end of the gun. The goon then managed to bend over and wheeze in pain from the blow to his manhood for all of three seconds before Ambush then finally turned around to face him, at which point she swung the gun like a golf club and bopped him in the face. The man screamed like a girl as he went flying backward.

Now feeling even more happy with herself, Ambush spun the gun around in her hands as it if were a martial arts staff before she then turned around in time to open fire at an incoming swarm of additional Chang goons. "Ha! Doesn't feel nearly as fun when you're the ones getting blasted now does it?!" She roared as she mowed down this latest round of foes.

"I'll bet it doesn't," Jungle Cat agreed as he then proceeded to slice an incoming wildebeest hybrid in the thigh with his right-hand's claws, grab it by the horns, and then use this grip to lift the already wounded hybrid and slam it down on its back before he then thrusted his head down and plunged his fangs into the stricken hybrid's throat.

At the exact same time that her boyfriend was busy briefly giving into his more animalistic side, Ambush found herself having to discard the laser rifle and engage in a series of swift gymnastics style backflips in order to avoid getting turned into a pincushion by a volley of crossbow bolts that a newly arrived squadron of Wildebeest Society underlings fired at her. The instant she was in a close enough distance to the 'leader' of this squadron, she grabbed onto his shoulders with both hands, swung herself onto his back, bent both her legs around his neck, and then did a back flip, causing the man to be catapulted into the air before then just as swiftly getting slammed down hard on his back against the cold steel floor. And just to make it even more difficult for his colleagues to attack her once they'd gotten over the shock of their leader's defeat, she turned invisible immediately after the leader's landing. And just as she planned, while the rest of the Wildebeest Society underlings looked uncomprehendingly in all directions trying to find their now suddenly vanished target, she proceeded to let loose with her invisible fists and feet, punching and kicking them all unconscious.

She then noticed that Jungle Cat was now completely surrounded by wildebeest hybrid soldiers, at which point she rushed straight at them while still invisible. Her boyfriend's would-be attackers were caught completely off guard as she first leaped upon one of them from behind, knocking it onto its face before then grabbing its horns and twisting its neck a full 180 degrees. And from there, they were all easy pickings as she proceeded to let loose with her clawed fingernails, her boyfriend watching with a smug smirk on his face as his would-be attackers all started suddenly finding their throats getting slit by an apparent invisible blade before then collapsing to the floor, dead before they even finished landing. The last one left alive seemed to briefly consider trying to run away, only for an invisible force to grab its horns, lift it up, and slam it down on the floor before it then shrieked in agony as it felt an invisible force similar to a bear trap clenching its invisible blades around its neck in a vice-like grip before then abruptly ripping its throat clean out.

Jungle Cat nodded his head at the sight of this gruesome death before then turning his head to his left in time to see a pale faced ginger haired Wildebeest Society underling with her hood down. For what felt like an eternity, Jungle Cat stared blankly at the now clearly terrified female Wildebeest Society underling. Then Ambush abruptly materialized directly in front of her; at which point the Wildebeest Society underling had just enough time to drop her crossbow and open her mouth as if to scream before she was then pounded in the chin with another gymnastics style high kick. The luckless grunt was sent flying upward with enough force to slam face first against the corridor's ceiling before she then landed on her back out cold against the floor.

No sooner was this last enemy grunt put out of commission when Ambush turned around on her heel to face Jungle Cat, tossing her shoulder-length blonde hair over her shoulder while also placing her hands on her hips. "How was _that_?" She purred.

"Nice and fierce," Jungle Cat purred back, giving his girlfriend a thumbs-up. "Just the way I like you," he then stated while suggestively licking his chops.

Ambush chuckled, narrowing her eyes seductively while also letting a sensuous toothy grin come on her furry face. "_Now_ we're talking."

The two feline mutants chuckled, shook their heads side to side to clear their heads, and then turned to face the direction they'd been heading before starting their recently ended battle. "Let's keep going," said Jungle Cat. "See if there's anything else we can do."

"Sounds like a plan kit cat," Ambush agreed as she and Jungle Cat started running down the hall.

Several minutes later, in a completely different sector, the couple skidded to a stop at the sight of what they happened to see in a room that just happened to have its door conveniently already open. They looked inside, eyes widening as they recognized it as the computer room that served as the main office for Arronax's four-member inner circle. And naturally, amongst the computers present was one of the seven supercomputers containing all the recorded data and similar information regarding the Wildebeest Society and their various experiments. The couple looked each other in the eyes, both of them silently realizing the importance of what they'd just stumbled upon.

"That data could be valuable evidence to give to the authorities after this raid's over," Ambush stated.

"Agreed," Jungle Cat stated in response.

"Well look what we have here."

The two feline mutants tensed up, eyes widened in surprise. But then their eyes narrowed, and their fangs gritted into silent snarls. They both knew that voice. They turned around, red and yellow eyes still narrowed into hateful glares, and vicious snarling coming out of their jaws. Sure enough, standing right next to them in the central intersection of the sector they were currently in, hands on her hips, a smug smile on her tanned face, and her dark eyes agleam with malevolent glee was Dr. Constance Morales, their all-time least favorite Wildebeest Society chief scientist. And that was saying a _lot_.

The Latina chuckled, her already wide grin growing bigger in her smug satisfaction. "If it isn't the missing Project Menagerie exhibits," she purred, her voice radiating with the same condescending tone she'd always used whenever she'd talked to them and their friends during the time the two feline mutants had lived under the Wildebeest Society's custody. Then she chuckled again, intertwining her fingers together in the process. "Or at least, the ones that are still alive."

A wave of rage instantly came upon Jungle Cat and Ambush, and they growled loudly at the Latina. This seemed to amuse her even more, as she chuckled again before saying, "Ooh, struck a nerve I see."

Jungle Cat pointed his finger at the arrogant scientist, red eyes blazing with rage and his teeth still gritted in a bloodthirsty snarl. "You. Will. PAY!" He roared, at this point barely keeping himself from flying off the handle. "So help me, the Wildebeest Society _will_ face justice for everything they've done to us, our friends, and every other innocent person or animal they've roped into their depravity; and especially for George!"

Dr. Morales scoffed, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance. "Oh please," she purred, her voice still as irritatingly patronizing as the two mutants remembered it to be. "It's his own fault he ended up the way he did. I mean seriously, for a guy who supposedly had super intelligence amongst his powers, he sure made some gobsmackingly stupid decisions. If he was truly as smart as his power allegedly indicated he was, he should have known better than to keep trying to resist even after he'd been recaptured and was flat out told that the wise option would be to surrender and let himself back under our custody, not to mention give up the location of you two, lest he suffer the consequences. But in the end, he made the wrong decision. And as a result, he died a miserable death by gunshot like the vermin that he was." She then gestured towards her neck, where the two mutants could now see what appeared to be a small orb capable of being split in two and placed back together. "And I even made sure to swipe the ashes from the sister location's incinerator and wear them around my neck after his death just to make an example out of him for you in the event you ever came back. And just think of how your other mangy little friends would react if they knew just what's actually in this necklace of mine.

Ambush snarled and stepped forward to point her own finger at the Latina. "GO TO HELL YOU BANSHEE BITCH!"

"Palos y piedras children," the scientist purred, arrogant grin still on her face. "Palos y piedras." She tossed her black hair over her shoulder. "And you know what? Considering recent developments, I'd say it's a very good thing you came, not to mention that I found you."

"Oh don't you worry," Jungle Cat growled as he crouched in preparation to lunge at the hated scientist, red eyes blazing, claws extended, and fangs gritted. "Ambush and I will still have plenty of time to find some way to get ahold of all your secrets from the computer once I've finished killing you."

"You're gonna have to get in line," Ambush hissed, her yellow eyes sparking, claws extended, and teeth bared just like her boyfriend. "This hag is _mine_!"

Constance only laughed. "Hate to break it to you," she then said, not sounding remotely sorry. "But you won't be doing anything to me. Why? Simple. You'll be too busy dealing with my new pets."

"Pets?" Jungle Cat asked, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

"What pets?" Ambush asked, similarly confused.

At the sound of a hollow reptilian snarling coming from behind them, the two feline mutants tensed up, clearly alarmed. But then they happened to turn around to look behind them, and their eyes widened in half shock and half horror at what they ended up seeing. Standing right there behind them, its eyes glowing with a solid white light, and the base of its neck encased in a peculiar looking collar, was a bipedal humanoid crocodile. The creature snarled at them, the multiple rows of sharp teeth within its mighty jaws gleaming in the light of the ceiling lamps. Also shining in the light were the chartreuse scales it was covered in from head to toe, the razor-sharp claws on its hands and feet, and the spikes lining the edges of its long powerful tail. Even the trio of golden yellow blonde three-pointed fin-like extensions on the top of its head seemed to glow like the sun. And all this, plus the all too familiar pair of Shego style olive green and jet-black swimming trunks that served as the only form of clothing it was wearing, only further hinted at just who this was.

In that instant, Ambush, at this point half quivering in fear and half struggling not to burst into tears, gingerly extended her left hand towards the snarling humanoid crocodile standing before her and Jungle Cat. "Owen?" She whimpered, a single part of her still desperately hoping like mad that, despite the evidence, this wasn't in fact Owen Scoresby, otherwise known as Swamp Gator, her and Jungle Cat's close friend that they and George had been forced to leave behind alongside three others and had until now believed to have still been cryogenically frozen and in hibernation at the Wildebeest Society's upper Lamumban sister location.

Ambush's left hand was inches away from the snarling humanoid crocodile's snout when it abruptly opened its mouth and tried to snap its teeth at her. Ambush hurriedly yanked her hand away with a shriek as the might jaws just narrowly managed to clamp shut on thin air where her hand had been. The beast snarled, its solid glowing white eyes narrowing, and turned its head to face the two feline mutants once more, a drop of lime green liquid slipping from its mouth as if it were drooling. And when that drop of liquid hit the floor right next to its right foot, an acrid smoke rose from the impact zone as the metal started to seemingly dissolve. And it was at this point that Jungle Cat and Ambush received full confirmation of this indeed being Swamp Gator, for the metahuman ability he had that had been awoken by his mutation just so happened to be acid manipulation. Specifically, he had acidic spit that could also double as an acid breath attack as well as the ability to harmlessly coat his hands in acid that he could then use to melt down anything he touched.

In that instant, Jungle Cat winced, a nervous grimace on his face while Ambush's face fell, her eyes now even more clearly on the verge of tears than before. "Owen," she whimpered. "No…"

"And he's not the only new pet I have."

Jungle Cat and Ambush turned to look at Constance after hearing this, just in time to see a large vortex of shadowy energy abruptly materialize right between them and the scientist. And mere seconds later, a single black furred wolf-like paw stepped out, followed by the rest of the being the paw in question was attached to. Jungle Cat gaped in horror, and Ambush placed her hands over her mouth as small tears started to slowly trickle from her eyes. Much like with the humanoid crocodile, they instantly recognized the humanoid wolf that had now stepped out of the shadowy vortex. Covered head to toe in jet-black fur, possessing shoulder-length black hair on her head to go with this fur, and clad in a skintight purple tank top and pair of sky-blue daisy dukes, there was no doubt in the two feline mutants' minds that this umbrakinetic wolf mutant was in fact their friend, and Owen's girlfriend, Claire Houlihan, also known as Night Howler. The lupine mutant snarled, her fangs seemingly the same shade of white as her unnaturally solid white glowing eyes, and she lifted her right hand, allowing the two feline mutants to have a good look at both the sharp thorn-like claws she had for fingernails as well as the shadowy tendrils that started crackling around her hand like electricity.

The sound of almost literally earthshaking footsteps to their left caused Ambush and Jungle Cat to look that way just in time to see a very buff and broad shouldered humanoid rhino dressed in dark red elastic cargo pants stomping his way towards them, his fists clenched, his glowing white eyes narrowed ominously, his well-muscled dark gray skin well complimented by the corridor lamps' light, the two large sharp horns on his snout likewise agleam, and the mop of dark brown hair styled in dreadlocks swinging through the air as he swung his head side to side like the very beast he resembled in an act of challenge. This newly arrived mutant, whom Jungle Cat and Ambush had already started to suspect was their friend Winston Ryerson, otherwise known as Rhinestone, then confirmed these very suspicions when, with a gravelly snort, he pounded his fists together before then causing his arms and hands to take on a solid-black crystalline form, his hands taking the shape of sharp crystalline blade-like structures immediately afterward. He then swung his brand-new makeshift weapons side to side, also causing both of his horns to similarly turn to black crystal for good measure.

The sound of bear-like growling coming from their right caused the two felines to likewise look that way in time to see a humanoid grizzly-bear clad in a yellow tracksuit that would have looked right at home on Uma Thurman in her role from _Kill Bill_. And appropriately enough, despite her hands and feet being covered with the dark brown fur usually seen on grizzly bears, the rest of her fur, if her head was any indication, was a color that could only be described as ash blonde. And she also had a waist length mop of snowy white platinum blonde hair on her head that she'd had prior to her mutation. This mutant, which Jungle Cat and Ambush were now quite certain was their friend, and Winston's girlfriend, Ursula Goolsby, aka. Grizzly Girl, snarled at the two feline mutants, her white fangs like daggers showing, and she then extended her hands in their direction; at which point both of her hands turned to wood, with her claw-like fingernails likewise transforming into wood before then extending ominously towards her two 'friends' like roots.

No sooner had Rhinestone and Grizzly Girl come to a stop when both of them, plus Swamp Gator and Night Howler, all growled ominously at Ambush and Jungle Cat, who gulped, gaping nervously at their four clearly brainwashed friends while Constance chuckled maliciously.

"Hope you enjoy your reunion," she purred. "I'd stick around to watch, but right now I do believe there are likely other areas of this lab where I could be a lot more useful at the moment. In any case, I'm sure I'll be very happy to hear the play-by-play once my pets are finished with you. Will you end up being killed by them? Will you surrender and end up joining them? Or will you by some impossible miracle snap them out of my control and back onto the wrong side of history? And don't even _try_ to remove those collars I placed on them. I specifically made sure that they could only be removed by either Arronax's magic, or by the fingerprints of his four inner circle members. So all that in mind, have fun everyone."

Chuckling now, she slipped past Night Howler and dashed off further into the corridor behind her, clearly eager to reach whatever destination she now had in mind. As this happened, the four brainwashed mutants slowly started advancing towards Jungle Cat and Ambush, both of whom were now far too nervous about the fact to even care about the fact that Constance Morales had now gotten away from them.

"Guys," Jungle Cat stated, trying desperately to keep his voice level and avoid showing any sign of the fear he was now feeling as he noticed both Swamp Gator lifting his hands and coating them in acid as well as Rhinestone causing his entire body to turn to black crystal, complete with five rows of jagged sharp crystalline spikes sprouting out of his back. "You really don't want to do this!"

"Friends, please," Ambush whimpered, half terrified and half blind from tears as she witnessed both an aura of shadowy mist form around Night Howler and the root-like extensions that Grizzly Girl's claws had become start to extend longer, become thicker, and sprout extra extensions on them that caused them to start looking more like elastic tree branches. "Snap out of it!"

But the mind control Dr. Morales had the four other mutants under was much too strong. And with a vicious roar and deep throaty bellow in unison, Grizzly Girl and Rhinestone chose to strike first, with Grizzly girl sending the branch-like extensions her fingernails had turned into rapidly flying towards the two feline mutants while Rhinestone turned his crystalline arm blades into spiked crystalline maces that he then lifted up and swung towards the two feline mutants as if he were about to bang a pair of cymbals.

Jungle Cat and Ambush quickly ducked just in time for Rhinestone's crystalline maces to smash against the tips of Grizzly Girl's tree branch fingernail extensions. Grizzly girl reared her head up, roaring in pain and discomfort as her fingernails started to retract back to their original length, and Rhinestone took a step back, grunting in seeming concern for her. Jungle Cat and Ambush immediately took advantage of the two more muscular mutants' period of distraction to escape, pausing only long enough for Jungle Cat to knock Swamp Gator backwards with a punch to his stomach and Ambush to turn invisible and use a swift leg sweep to trip up Night Howler before they both then bolted past the still reeling Grizzly Girl and hurry as fast as they could down the bear mutant's corridor. They'd just made it halfway down this corridor when they heard the enraged cacophony of noise their brainwashed friends let out, followed by the heavy pounding of all four of said brainwashed mutants' running footsteps as they ran after the two feline mutants in pursuit.

. . . . .

Professor Chang was in a mild state of panic as he paced around the lab chamber where the four captive founding Titans were imprisoned, his four most trusted underlings directing blank looks at their seemingly on the verge of snapping boss while the four captives directed their own considerably more amused gazes at him. "This isn't how it was supposed to go," he babbled to himself. "Mr. Galtry's nephew was supposed to arrive in another hour and a half from now. And he was supposed to be alone and be calmly escorted through the lab to where he needed to be taken, not come bursting through the gates with an entire army out of the blue!"

Cyborg couldn't help but laugh loudly from within the makeshift cell he and the other prisoners were in. "Ha," he yelled. "Man, did you really think BB wouldn't try to make things difficult for you? You really should have known better than to underestimate any of us considering how much underestimating Robin's willingness to take risks bit you in the butt three years ago, not to mention how much BB himself managed to put up a pretty strong resistance against the Brotherhood last year!"

"He may not often show it," Raven stated, a small smirk on her face. "But when he really decides to get serious, he can certainly hold his own quite well."

Chang rapidly turned around to face the cell, pointing his finger accusingly at the four prisoners. "Shut your mouths," he snarled, clearly on edge. "This is no laughing matter!"

"Boss, calm down," said one of the four mooks in the room with him. "I'm sure the Mr. Arronax will have a good idea on what we should do once he returns to this room."

"He said for us to expect him to be back within five minutes after his departure!" Chang howled. "And that was almost an entire hour ago!" He rapidly drew out his communicator, narrowing his eyes and snarling incoherently with rage, at the sight of their still not being any reply to the increasingly panicked texts and voicemail messages he'd sent to both Arronax and Galtry. "God in Heaven, where are they?! And why won't they answer me, damn it!?"

"Boss," said the same mook who'd spoken not too long ago, patient tone still present in his voice.

"SHUT UP!" Chang roared. "JUST SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!"

What felt like an eternity of silence filled the air. Then Chang took a deep breath, exhaled, and directed an apologetic look at his four most trusted underlings. "Forgive me for that," he said, genuinely sounding regretful. "I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. I guess I'm just a little too on edge right now."

"No offense taken," said one of the other goons, his three associates likewise nodding their heads.

"That's good," said Chang. He nodded his head. "I just need a brief little bit of time to calm down. I'm sure I'll have something figured out once I've got my head back together." The four underlings nodded in agreement.

The four captive Titans, however, couldn't help but let small smirks appear on their faces as they surreptitiously looked each other in the eyes. Already they had an idea on just how to make good use of their own current time. After all, judging from both what they'd heard so far about the events unfolding outside the room and the way Chang and his four most trusted underlings were now behaving, they now had the perfect opportunity to spring an epic trap on them and successfully escape to help Beast Boy immediately afterward. And even better, with what Chang had just said, they now also had an equally good opportunity to trick him into walking right into their planned trap.

"Why waste time?" Robin asked, a deliberately sarcastic sounding tone to his voice that masked how he was actually feeling. "Maybe you should just go ahead and have me and my friends here placed inside those domes and have the Primetia sample at the ready for release into that machine that will spew it into them? As long as you don't get too trigger happy while waiting, this should allow you to have the perfect leverage available for if Beast Boy or any other hopeful rescuers come bursting in." As he said this, the other four captive Titans likewise did everything in their power to convincingly act as if mentally asking their leader if he was insane and begging him not to give their captors any ideas.

Another brief silence hung in the air as Chang seemed to seriously consider what Robin had seemingly suggested made a snide suggestion for him to do. Then he let a wide grin come on his face. "You know what?" He then said, his finger raised as if to emphasize a point, grin still on his face. "That's actually a _perfect_ idea!" He turned to his four underlings. "Boys," he stated. "Ready yourselves. It's time to transfer the prisoners to the Primetia domes."

"Yes sir," all four of the underlings present stated in unison as they lifted up their laser rifles and got them to firing mode. They walked up to the translucent green energy barrier keeping the four Titans from leaving the cell, laser rifles at the ready, but noticeably with more focus on being pointed towards Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire than on Raven. Even Professor Chang, who got into position at the machine right next to the cell designed to activate and deactivate the energy field, seemed to see no problem with how his goons seemed to be considering Raven to be less of a threat at the moment compared to her three teammates. And while this was somewhat understandable from a certain point of view as a result of the ring of runes on the walls outside the lab building designed to inhibit Raven's powers, all five of the enemies within the room were about to learn the hard way how a certain recent event really should have gotten them to be more on guard towards Raven, not to mention be quite worried and confused as to why she hadn't already acted in some way despite the fact.

And sure enough, right the four goons were still standing by the barrier and keeping their guns pointed at her teammates and their boss was patiently entering in the code that would deactivate the barrier, Raven was carefully whispering to herself, "Azarath, Metrion…" The barrier disactivated, at which point she snapped her head up to face the enemy, her eyes glowing with black energy while she also lifted her arms and pointed her similarly shadowy energy encased hands towards them. "ZINTHOS!" The subsequent shockwave of shadowy energy blasted Chang and his four most trusted underlings off their feet and caused them to land on their backs several feet away from the Titans. They didn't even have time to fully recover before shadowy energy encased them and lifted them up in the air. Raven, still keeping her powers active, calmly stepped out of the gaping open cell, her three smirking teammates stepping out of the cell as well close behind her.

Chang gaped incredulously at the sight of this, completely failing to understand how this was possible. "How?!" He shrieked, eyes widened under his red goggles in shock and horror. "That ring of runes…"

"Needed to be positioned in a complete uninterrupted ring around my vicinity in order for their magic to work," Raven explained. "But as you are well aware, a gaping hole was recently blown into one of the walls outside that the ring of runes was painted on. And so, with the ring now incomplete, presto, my powers are back." With an almost contemptuous wave of her hand, the Azarathian half demoness threw the scientist and his four underlings across the room and right into a pile on a small platform underneath what appeared to be a completely vertical showerhead-like device on the ceiling of the specific alcove-like area they'd now landed in. Chang and the goons had just lifted their heads to look towards the Titans when a wall of thick reinforced glass suddenly slammed into place between them and the outside of the 'alcove', trapping them, courtesy of a nearby switch Raven had just used her powers to yank into an upwards position.

Starfire then flew into position so that she was hovering right by a large blue button with a sticker that had the words 'frost machine' positioned nearby. She giggled as she hovered her finger over the button. "And considering how incredibly anxious you were not too long ago," she then said. "I believe you could use a little time to chill." She pressed the button.

Chang's eyes widened, and he extended his hand uselessly towards the glass wall trapping him and his four goons. "WAIT!"

A gigantic cloud of icy mist burst out of the showerhead-like device above Chang and his four goons, filling up the entire alcove behind the glass wall and obscuring the four scientists from view. When the mist finally dissipated, Chang and his four most trusted underlings were revealed to be frozen solid, and in almost the exact same position they'd been in when they'd been similarly flash frozen during the big battle at the Brotherhood of Evil's headquarters the previous year.

Cyborg chuckled as he gazed at the once again frozen Chang. "History just _loves_ to repeat itself. Doesn't it?"

"You can say that again," Robin agreed, a smug smirk on his face. He then looked at Starfire and Raven. "Let's go find Beast Boy."

"Agreed," said Starfire. Raven likewise nodded her head in agreement.

At the sound of an electronic beep, followed by the door opening, the four Titans turned their heads just in time to see none other than Wildebeest come running into the room, only to skid to a stop at the sight of them clearly freed from imprisonment. After a few seconds of resting and panting to get his breath back, he lifted his head to face the four founders he'd come to rescue, a small smile on his face. "Well," he said. "Nice to see you've gotten yourselves out without too much help."

"Well technically, you did help us get out of our cell," Robin stated. "Albeit, in a rather indirect way."

"Well I suppose I'll take your word for it for now." Wildebeest nodded his head. "After all, we'll probably have plenty of time to give each other the full story once all the current craziness going on is over. And _man_ do Beast Boy and I have a lot to tell you, not to mention a lot of new friends to introduce you to." He then happened to look in the direction of the frozen Chang, and his smile widened. "And I see you got Professor Chang out of the way. Nice job."

"Glad to hear that little buddy," said Cyborg. Robin and Starfire similarly smiled happily. Raven, however, seemed rather nervous now.

"Wildebeest," she then said. "Have you encountered the benefactor?"

The young mutant raised his eyebrow. "Considering the only enemies I've met so far in this lab were all wildebeest mutants like myself, Wildebeest Society grunts, and those ghostbuster suit guys working for Chang, I highly doubt it. Why do you ask?"

In that instant, Raven looked at her three teammates, all of whom were now similarly pale faced and wide-eyed as they realized the same thing that Raven herself now had on her mind. Then they all looked back at Wildebeest. "Wildebeest," said Raven. "We need to get out of this room and find Beast Boy as soon as possible. There's something the four of us know about the man who hired Chang to make Primetia that we all think Beast Boy will _really_ want to know about before he meets the man himself…"

The sound of a sudden shocked scream coming in unison from her three fellow founding Titans behind her caused Raven to turn her head in time to see Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire be abruptly grabbed by shadowy tendrils and yanked into a separate shadowy vortex each that had suddenly materialized into existence behind them.

"What the…?"

This was all Wildebeest managed to say before what looked like a ball of fire struck him in the side and sent him flying to his left before crash landing on his back against what appeared to be some sort of operating table. All of two seconds passed before rings of glowing green energy materialized around his neck, wrists, and ankles; pinning him to the table. His eyes widened. "HEY!" He yelled as he reflexively started jerking against the five energy rings strapping him to the operating table. "WHAT GIVES?!"

Raven had just turned her head away from Wildebeest and towards where the fireball had come from in time to get blasted back towards the now empty makeshift cell by a burst of lightning. She groaned in pain, her hand against her stomach, after landing right in front of the empty cell, her eyes closed, and teeth gritted from both the impact of her landing and the minor electrocution she'd received from the blast.

"We have some unfinished business to settle _Gem_."

Raven's eyes widened upon hearing this. The distinctive deep voice was enough to clue her in on how Arronax was now in the room, and likely somehow responsible for what had just happened to her, Wildebeest, and the other three previously captured founding Titans. But at the same time, she couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about the very specific way he'd emphasized the word 'gem' while referring to her. She looked up. Sure enough, she saw Arronax standing right nearby in his distinctive white robe with its grayish purple wildebeest head shaped brooch and his scarlet red hair agleam in the light of the ceiling lamp. But she now also saw something about him that now looked wildly different. Specifically, his eyes, which she could have sworn had been black up to this point, were now an astonishingly bright blue.

And even worse, within minutes of looking, she found herself realizing how, with his eyes now suddenly blue, combined with his already present red hair, fair skin, and mysterious necklace around his neck that she now couldn't help but mentally kick herself over having not recognized before, Arronax looked very disturbingly similar to someone she'd known while growing up in Azarath, had last seen while still a baby, and had reportedly attempted to kill her while she was still a baby before ending up killed by Trigon on the very same night she herself would have otherwise been killed. "Juris?"

The Wildebeest Society's leader snarled, his blue eyes narrowed hatefully at Raven. Then he snapped his fingers, causing him and Raven both to be suddenly engulfed by a shadowy vortex of energy that materialized on the floor under their feet before then closing and fading out of existence immediately afterward.

. . . . .

In the room that served as a gymnasium, a shadowy vortex opened up inches away from the ceiling, and Cyborg plummeted out, screaming in surprise before landing hard on his face against the floor. "Ouch," he grunted, wincing from the impact against the floor. He groaned, got on his hands and knees, and rubbed the back of his head, still grimacing from his rough landing. "Good grief," he groaned. "I'm so going to feel that later."

"Well, well, well," said a familiar gravelly voice coming from Cyborg's right. "It appears I was right to stay in this room as the boss ordered."

Cyborg turned his head, his human eye narrowing at the sight of none other than the bearded, salt and pepper haired, and surprisingly muscular middle eastern man amongst the four scientists in the Wildebeest Society leader's inner circle. The half robot got onto his feet, already flexing his arms and clenching his fists as he prepared himself for a fight. "You may think so now," he grumbled. "But we'll see how you're feeling about that when I'm through with you."

"The boss did believe that I would be an ideal choice amongst the four amongst his inner circle to go up against you in the event that you escaped," Dr. Saul Azimi stated, a smug smirk on his face. In a flash, he took on a combat stance, his titanium knuckles seemingly teleporting into the appropriate battle-ready position out of thin air as if by magic, and his smug smirk turning into a wide grin. "And right now, I am very much willing to test this theory."

Cyborg raised his eyebrow, and then converted his right arm into its sonic cannon form, which he immediately started charging up. "This is starting to look like an awfully one-sided combat; don't you think?"

Azimi chuckled, drew out what looked like a camera, and pressed a button, causing it to transform very suddenly into what looked like a pitch-black portable version of Samus Aran's arm cannon. He pointed it at Cyborg, a bright red glow already starting to form within as the machine seemingly charged up in preparation to fire. "Not necessarily," the middle eastern man stated, grin still on his face.

Cyborg involuntarily gulped. "Oh dear," he managed to say before Saul's cannon almost immediately went off, blasting Cyborg straight into a stack of barbells positioned behind him. He'd literally just lifted himself back into a seated position from the wreckage of the barbell stack, rubbing the back of his head when he heard running feet coming towards him. He looked ahead just in time to see Saul charging straight towards him with both fists at the ready.

"Let's see if you can handle _this_," the middle eastern scientist yelled as he jumped in the air in preparation to slam his left fist down on Cyborg's stomach. The half robot Titan hurriedly rolled out of the way just in time. And like that, the battle was on.

. . . . .

A second shadowy vortex opened up directly above a series of catwalks positioned high above the floor of the central lab chamber, and Robin came falling out. But unlike Cyborg, he managed to acrobatically get himself positioned in a way that allowed him to land safely on his feet. He looked around, quickly taking note of every detail about the environment that he could. After all, you could never be too careful in enemy territory. "Be ready for anything," Robin thought to himself, remembering the words Batman had told him back in Gotham City so many years ago. "When in their territory, the enemy could strike at any time from any place. Keep your guard up, and your eyes and ears open…"

"I was just starting to wonder why my boss was so keen on me positioning myself in this area."

At the sound of this relatively high-pitched voice, Robin turned his head just in time to see none other than the mousy brown haired Caucasian man amongst the four chief Wildebeest Society scientists standing about a yard ahead of him, a smile on his face, and an intimidating looking black rapier drawn out for battle.

Robin narrowed his eyes. "Well don't get too comfortable," he stated as he drew out his bo staff and extended it to full length without missing a beat. "You familiar with Batman? Well you're looking at a guy who got personally trained by him. And I can assure you, I'm not gonna go down easily."

"You got captured pretty easily yesterday."

"That doesn't count. For starters, I got caught off guard. Secondly, I was outnumbered and outgunned to a degree that any attempt at fighting my way out would have only gotten me killed. And finally, last I recall, you weren't even there amongst the group who captured and welcomed me here."

"Fair point," admitted Dr. Lagrange, a look of clear respect on his face. He leaned back into a different combat position, rapier still at the ready to attack. "But nevertheless, I trained in a hard school Boy Wonder," he then stated, swinging his rapier around threateningly as if to try to intimidate Robin. "So are you really certain you wish to test your luck against me?"

"Well if the fact that I got trained by _Batman_ didn't tip you off, I trained in a pretty hard school to." Robin spun his bo staff around in stereotypical martial arts fashion. "In fact, depending on just what you consider a 'hard school' in regard to your rapier training, I may very well have grown up in a much harder school than you." He took on an attack stance of his own, beckoning Lagrange to come to him. "Let's get this over with."

"Well may the best man win then," Lagrange yelled, a gleeful look of pride on his face. Quick as a whip, he pointed his sword directly ahead and towards Robin. "Ha!" Lagrange roared as he started rushing straight towards the Boy Wonder.

"Ya!" Robin howled as he rushed towards Lagrange with his bo staff similarly at the ready.

The two warriors came to a stop directly on the center of the catwalk they were currently positioned on, at which point they both started viciously clashing their weapons together.

. . . . .

A third shadowy vortex materialized near the roof of what appeared to be some sort of meeting room, and Starfire slipped out. Fortunately, unlike her two male companions who'd gotten similar treatment, she could not only fly, but also arrived at her destination with enough space between the vortex and the room's floor to get her flight activated in time to avoid landing on the floor at all. Once she'd gotten herself settled in the air, she glided around while carefully looking every way she could. She had a feeling that she would likely have to start fighting enemy forces in the near future.

"Well now," said a familiar raspy voice from somewhere down below. "It seems I get the honor of fighting the alien." Starfire looked down towards the direction of the voice in time to see the Latina scientist from the Wildebeest Society leader's inner circle. Said scientist let an arrogant smirk come on her face as she placed her hands on her hips. "Rather ironic don't you think? Me, a descendant of illegal Mexican American immigrants, doing battle with a legitimate alien." She drew out a trio of intimidating looking foudre knives. "And _man_ am I looking forward to getting the chance to cut you up for research if the boss gives me the chance after this is over."

Starfire narrowed her eyes, which then started to glow green. "You're awfully abundant in confidence of your chances at beating me," she growled, her hands becoming encased in star bolts even as her eyes already glowed green in preparation for firing her eye beams. "I'll need far more evidence than your saying of the so to believe that I won't have a victory that is the guaranteed against you."

"Well you won't be feeling so confident in your own chances of victory against me once you've gotten a taste of how it feels to get hit by one of these babies," Dr. Constance Morales purred while stroking her left hand across the three knives in her right hand. "Not to mention by this." Immediately after she said that last bit, she abruptly reached into her belt and drew out what looked like the handle of a lightsaber. At the same time she did so, she very swiftly managed to press a button that caused, with a earsplittingly loud noise similar to a boom of thunder, what appeared to be a bolt of lightning to burst out of the metallic 'handle' before then decreasing down to a comparatively smaller 'string' of crackling electricity.

At the sight of the brief look of shock on the Tamaranean's face, the Latina chuckled maniacally, her grinning face now looking even more nightmarish with the crackling electricity of her voltage whip illuminating her face. "Prepare to become my next experiment Third Kind Reject!" Morales yelled, eyes agleam and maniacally joyous grin still on her face as she twirled her voltage whip around like a lasso before then very abruptly lashing it up towards Starfire. The Tamaranean _just_ barely managed to dodge, letting out a terrified shriek in the process. She was now very much starting to regret having taunted her current opponent into revealing just how tough she was actually capable of being.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in all the time that had unfolded leading up to these multiple climactic battles, Beast Boy had been gradually making his way through the lab towards where Dr. Rookwood had told him he would find the vault containing the all-important cure. And as he flew through the corridors in vulture mode during the first few minutes of his travels, he couldn't help but feel a sense of both excitement and trepidation. For he had not been kidding earlier when he'd said that he had a feeling he'd need the cure in the near future. For as it so happened, he'd slowly started feeling a very uncomfortable slight burning presence in his mind over the course of the various times he'd transformed so far that day. And at this very moment, it was only continuing to gradually grow stronger, and he had a _very_ bad feeling as to what it was. The Beast only made him feel even more nervous by confirming his suspicions to in fact be true.

"It is the virus," the Beast growled, a warning tone to its voice. "It is starting to take over. You must make haste."

"He's right," responded the voice of the very same vulture species whose form the shapeshifter had currently taken. "I can feel it to. We all can. It's already successfully overwhelmed several of the weaker minded amongst us." It seemed to warble in discomfort very briefly. "And what's worse," it managed to croak. "I think I might be starting to feel it coming over _me_."

Beast Boy's eyes widened. "What?!" He thought to himself. "But you're one of the stronger minded ones! Aren't you?"

"I am," said the vulture mind. "But there are others considerably stronger minded than me. And furthermore, with the amount of time you've been in my form both here in this building and outside watching that battle, my mind's defenses against the virus have been whittled away far more swiftly than they would have if you hadn't taken my form at all today."

Beast Boy rapidly thought to himself over what the vulture form's mind had told him. "So the more time I spend in one form in this current condition, the swifter the virus can work its magic on that specific form?"

"Exactly," said the Beast. "Which puts us in a bit of a dilemma, to put it lightly."

"Well in that case, here's the plan," Beast Boy said, making extra sure to be speaking directly to the Beast. "Until I get the cure, I'll be leaving it up to you to decide what animals I turn into as needed from this point onward." He looked ahead, still flying through the corridor in his vulture form, but now also seeing four Wildebeest Society grunts standing at the end and pointing their crossbows at him. "Starting now!"

"This one," the Beast yelled, causing one of the animal minds in the changeling's mental scape to develop a bright green outline.

Beast Boy channeled that form, turning into a lion in midair before diving down towards one of the grunts with a roar. The lion's front paws pounded against the chest of the grunt right as he was about to press the trigger to fire, the impact causing the crossbow to point harmlessly in the wrong direction when it ended going off. The luckless mook grunted in pain as he was pinned to the floor on his back by Beast Boy the lion. The three other mooks stepped back, holding their fire so as to avoid potentially shooting their comrade. With a growl, Beast Boy slammed his lion form's right front paw hard against the pinned grunt's jaw, knocking him out instantly.

"Now this form!"

Beast Boy followed the Beast's latest instruction, turning into a zebra. In that instant, the changeling already knew exactly how to make good use of this good form. Jumping around so that he was facing the grunt to his right, he then sent the one who'd been to his left flying backwards with a powerful back kick with both hindlegs.

"This one!"

Beast Boy turned into a hippo, snapped his jaws around the crossbow of the mook in front of him and lifted his head with enough for to slam the grunt against the ceiling, causing him to lose consciousness when he subsequently landed back on the floor.

"This one! But make sure you turn your head a little to the left first!"

Beast Boy did as instructed, allowing himself to be ideally positioned when his subsequent transformation into a giraffe resulted in the subsequent extension of his neck causing the one remaining grunt to get pounded in the chest by the giraffe form's horned head and sent rocketing backward into a wall. The grunt crumpled to the ground unconscious immediately afterward.

"Now back to human form!"

Beast Boy shifted back to human form. "Thanks," he mentally stated to the Beast.

"Happy to help. Now move down the hallway where that grunt you attacked in hippo form is positioned. And assume your cheetah form, you should be able to make a decent amount of progress in reaching the vault for at least five minutes in that form before you have to worry."

Beast Boy turned into a cheetah and started rushing in the direction the Beast had told him to run, with the Beast providing directions on where to go from there. "Left, right, left…no wait, another right! Now left! Another left…THIS FORM NOW!"

Beast Boy turned into a bison just in time to bowl over a small squadron of Chang goons that had been about to open fire at him. He had literally just finished making it past this brief obstacle when he saw a wildebeest mutant charging at him with its right fist drawn back to punch at him. On the Beast's order, he turned into a prairie dog, and then safely ran right between the hybrid's legs while it was subsequently off balance from unexpectedly striking thin air with its punch and meeting no resistance. The one that had now unsuccessfully tried to punch the shapeshifter fell flat on its face, but there were two more charging over a couple feet behind that one, so Beast Boy followed the Beast's next command, turning into a bobcat in the process; at which point he jumped onto the head of one of the hybrids, and then obeyed the Beast's next command to turn into a red-tailed hawk and fly away just in time to cause the other hybrid to end up punching its own herd mate in the face when it attempted to strike the changeling. All of two seconds later, the Beast pointed out another form to channel the shape of when the changeling was directly above the head of the mutant who'd just accidentally punched out its companion. Beast Boy obeyed, at which point he landed upon the hybrid in his electric eel form and zapped the living daylights out of it. Beast Boy turned into a frog and hopped off right as the now unconscious hybrid fell towards the floor before then turning into a raven in midair and flying a few feet before then turning back to human form.

At this point, the burning sensation in his mind still felt fairly mild. Nevertheless, it did feel a tiny bit stronger now than it had before, so the changeling was not about to relax just yet. And with the Beast guiding him and giving him instructions on what forms to take as needed, Beast Boy continued to make his way through the corridors in his efforts at reaching the vault, the virus slowly expanding its presence in his mind the entire way. After what felt like forever, the changeling finally caught sight of a bank vault-style door that seemed very much likely to be the entrance to the all-important vault. And the corridor in which it was positioned was just a yard or two away! Unfortunately, he could now also see six Wildebeest Society grunts, ten wildebeest hybrids, and 27 Chang goons standing between him and the vault.

He narrowed his eyes and silently snarled at the enemy forces ahead even as the seven Wildebeest Society grunts started to load their crossbows, not once stopping his headlong dash in human form towards them. "Dude," he mentally growled to the Beast. "Now these guys are _really_ pissing me off. Let's let 'em have it!"

"Gladly. Take this form!"

Beast Boy shifted into a white-tailed deer, bounded into position amongst the small squadron of Wildebeest Society grunts, and proceeded to use the subsequent hooves and antlers he gained from the transformation to swiftly knock all six of them unconscious. At another command from the Beast, he shifted back into his lion form. Instantly guessing what the Beast had in mind for this form, the shapeshifter roared loudly at the ten hybrids, which all bellowed in panic, turned around, and fled down a nearby side corridor. One of the Chang goons rushed forward, partially for the sake of attempting to attack Beast Boy and partially for the sake of trying to get the hybrids back in line. But Beast Boy, acting once again under prompting from the Beast, assumed his t-rex form, the magic of the camouflage charm allowing it to be covered in dark gray scales, but also with a tan underbelly and a large patch of red scales on the very top of its head, and with the black stripes on its back and tail the only parts that remained of the changeling's usual color scheme in this form.

The Chang goon had just barely managed to skid to a stop, still fighting to avoid losing his balance altogether from fright when the dinosaur lightly snapped its jaws around him just tight enough not to drop him, swung its head around side to side with the goon's kicking legs and feet still sticking out of its mouth, and then sent the goon flying off in the same direction as the fleeing hybrids. The goon who'd been very briefly been in the dinosaur's jaws crashed into the corridor ceiling, lost consciousness, and fell out cold to the floor with a thud. Seven of the other Chang goons started rushing towards the changeling, angrily yelling incoherently without thinking as they blindly rushed to try to attack, only to promptly pay for their blind recklessness by getting sent flying back the way they'd come and straight into a wall by a swing of the mighty dinosaur's tail. And no sooner had the seven luckless goons hit by the tail fallen to the floor on their faces afterward, naturally out cold, when Beast Boy finished the single spin he'd done over the course of his tail swing, his right leg and foot, which he'd lifted off the floor during his single brief spin brought about by the tail whip attack, now stomping hard a single time on the floor, before then instantly letting out a thunderous roar straight in the direction of the 19 Chang goons still present. This roar, plus the sight of both the murderous look of rage in the dinosaur's eyes as well as the multiple viciously sharp banana shaped fangs in its mighty jaws, caused all 19 of the remaining goons to scream in terror, turn away from the changeling, and flee for their lives.

With all the fleeing goons disappeared from sight and hearing range when the mighty dinosaur Beast Boy had turned into remained positioned as it had been when it had scared them off, panting slightly as it engaged in a brief period of rest. As this happened, what appeared to be vivid lime green zebra stripe-like markings suddenly materialized on the dinosaur's face and glowed so bright as to be almost like a neon sign before then vanishing just as abruptly as they'd appeared. And at the exact same moment the markings disappeared, a light coating of charcoal gray mist formed around the dinosaur before then fading away to reveal that it now suddenly reverted from its apparent natural coloring to the familiar uniform olive green with black stripes color scheme that the form had always come with prior to the casting of the camouflage charm.

It did not take long for Beast Boy to notice this, and he shifted back to human form seconds later, drawing out his communicator and checking the time afterward. "10:45," he noted as he looked at the time. He nodded his head. "Makes sense. N'jobu did say it would last for an hour, and since it was 9:30 when N'jobu first started applying the paint and other appropriate material, 9:40 when he'd finally finished applying it all on and casting the charm, and 9:45 when the mixture finished drying off and the charm finally took effect, that means it's been a full hour."

"Well at least it proved useful while it lasted," said the Beast.

"You can say that again," the changeling agreed. He nodded his head, taking note of how the burning presence in his mind brought about by the virus still slowly working to enact its final phase was still a relatively minor feeling, but nonetheless had strengthened to the point that it was nonetheless much harder to miss now even when he wasn't actively focusing on it. And the fact that he could now easily notice it without even directly focusing on it was enough reason to convince him that it was wise to continue to avoid relaxing for the time being. He walked resolutely over to the doorway to the vault, a determined glare on his face. "And now that we're here, let's get that cure."

He entered in the code. "N. Y. U. M. B. U," he stated just to be certain he got it right as he proceeded, as instructed by Dr. Rookwood, to type in the exact same code he'd used to deactivate the deflector shields. And sure enough, with an electronic beep, followed by a blinking green light from the code machine after he pressed the 'enter' key, the massive circular door unlocked and slowly swung open to reveal the polished stainless-steel interior of the vault. And in the very center, resting upon the top of what looked like a small snow-white marble pedestal, was a small safe. A happy grin on his face, the changeling entered the vault, the same hand that he'd used to unlock the vault already at the ready and pointing towards the safe as he made his way over to it.

He had to admit, part of him was honestly feeling rather surprised at just how well the plan appeared to be going so far. But even so, he certainly wasn't going to question his good luck. After all, as surprising as that one small part of him was currently finding it to be, the fact still remained that, as far as he was currently aware, everything seemed to be going perfectly for the plan. And within the next few minutes, he was gong to open that safe, inject himself with the antidote, and be safely cured of the Primetia virus. And nothing was going to stop him. Not even…

"Hello Craig."

**Dun, dun, DUN! How will things unfold from here?! That in mind, I nonetheless hope you enjoyed what I have to offer with this chapter (especially after the long wait) and have plenty to say in any reviews you may leave for it (remember, an exact MINIMUM of one review is required for this specific chapter to allow the next chapter to be posted once it's complete). Because boy did I have a lot of fun with this, and I really hope to have similar fun with the very next chapter (which will also, just so you're warned, potentially take a relatively long period of time to finish)! See you later dudes!**

**Quick note to Eris: I hope you have plenty to comment on regarding various different elements and sections of this chapter. I also hope that you are pleased with seeing a few answers to some of the remaining unanswered questions from your reviews of the previous 3 chapters as well as incorporation of several of your ideas/suggestions from said reviews. ^_^**

**Coming up Next: With all the big ticket pieces on the board and ready to play, just ****_HOW_**** will things unfold from here?! Find out next time, as the vicious endgame unfolds!**


	17. The Worst Family Reunion Ever

**Hey everybody. Man I've taken WAY too long this time. I'll admit, this chapter was actually initially going to be even LONGER then it currently is. But at this point, after a long while of writing and going back and forth on whether I wanted to split it up, I've decided that it will be much better for me to have a bunch of the parts initially planned for this chapter to be moved over into the next chapter alongside what was already planned for said next chapter. Not to mention the fact that it also felt only fitting to release this chapter in its current state as a means of (in a roundabout way) providing tribute for the now tragically departed Chadwick Boseman (rest in power man. Wakanda Forever.). And regardless, I very much hope that you all enjoy what has managed to stay in this chapter and that you leave plenty of feedback (seriously, with how exhausting this chapter eventually became to write, I really could use some good feedback to ensure that I don't lose my steam for this story, let alone for the planned stories to follow). And that being the case, this chapter is where the vicious endgame begins to unfold for this story. How shall it all go down? Prepare to find out dudes!**

**A/N: But first, let me remind you all that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based or similarly owned by a separate higher legal authority than myself. The only things I dare to claim ownership of are my OCs and a few unique twists and turns involving Azarath and the Wildebeest Society, plus several deities that I made up myself for the Upper Lamumban tribe. And furthermore, some quick answers to some questions from Eris:**

**A: Paint Camouflage Charm Timing - As N'jobu himself explained in the chapter before the previous chapter, the maximum amount of time he could allow this charm to work is an entire 24 hours, as that is the maximum amount of time in which he can apply a safe amount of paint and the other necessary material for. If he were to try to apply an amount of paint that would allow the charm to last longer than 24 hours, then it would come at the risk of suffocating or drowning the one the paint would be getting applied to. And that in mind, an hour is confirmed by allowing enough paint and additional charm material to be applied to a person's face. But for the sake of having the charm be in effect for an entire 24 hours, Beast Boy would have had to strip down to at least his underwear. And the only reason he applied enough for just an entire hour is that he only had enough of the additional material that needed to be mixed in with the paint to allow for such an amount of time.**

**B: The Depths of Beast Boy's Mind in Which he had his Dream Talk with the Beast - Technically, N'jobu helped guarantee that Beast Boy would be able to talk to the Beast while sleeping that night and thus wouldn't have to wait until he'd successfully talked with the Beast while awake before going to sleep. That being said though, I'm sure that, once cured, Beast Boy will be a bit more willing to try to go to that same level of depth within his mind than he was before his experiences with Primetia. It's certainly a possibility at the very least. And as for that truce? Yes, it will definitely be expanded upon in the future (or at least that's the plan).**

**C: Inner Mind Access for the Beast and other Animals - They'll have just enough access to be able to view his thoughts and help provide influence as advisors in combat. But they'll still be denied the level of access they'd need to completely take full control of his body (unless a 'special occasion' occurs in which he decides that such will be necessary).**

**D: Creation of Copies in Adonis (and potentially others) - That's something I still need to think about (which is why I had Beast Boy and the Beast feel uncomfortable with fully discussing the matter in the previous chapter).**

**E: Studying of 'Mythical' and Alien Animals - Considering how mythical animal forms are at least planned to start playing a somewhat key role in future stories, I'm sure that Beast Boy could very well prove a bit more willing to take a look at Raven's books and other material on such animals once this adventure is over. Alien animals, I'll need to think about.**

**F: Dr. Rookwood's Final Bit of Info - She wanted to let Nyota (and through her, Beast Boy and the others) that Chang's 'benefactor' was Beast Boy's uncle.**

**G: Arronax's/Juris's Amulet - You'll find out what it does this very chapter ^_^**

**H: The Extent of Beast Boy's Transformation Abilities - Well from what I've researched, the Red does have a degree of connection with microscopic life as well as all the animals. Therefore, considering he can already turn into an amoeba, he could entirely likely be capable of turning into stuff like bacteria or archaea (though I think I'll accept your headcanon of him feeling weirded out by the idea as 'canon' for this series of stories). Fungi and plants he can't turn into as they're connected to the Green, which he himself doesn't have a sufficient enough connection to that he would need in order to be capable of even controlling plants (ala Poison Ivy), let alone turn into them. As for humanoids, while he could at least transform into a Gordanian in the comics, I'm planning on not having him be capable of turning into explicitly humanoid species outside of more animalistic primates like monkeys and apes by virtue of all the 'higher evolved humanoids' having a not sufficiently active enough connection to the Red to allow him to take their forms (and also because it allows my writing for Beast Boy's powers to avoid becoming TOO complicated for me to properly handle).**

**I: Other Unnatural Powers Alongside the Porcupine Quill Shooting - As explained by the Beast in the previous chapter, other unnatural powers provided to the animal forms by the Red include ultrasonic vocalizations in animals that don't already have as much, enhanced speed for already fast animals, elasticity in necks and trunks of long necked animals and pachyderms, enhanced durability of armored animals, cloning in insects and similar forms, etc. And as far as the cloning power is concerned, my headcanon is that any clones he creates while in the form of an animal that could be granted such a power by the Red automatically revert back into the body of the originator whenever said originator reverts back to his original human form.**

**J: Potential Other Powers You've Suggested - I can certainly allow those suggestions to be on the table at least.**

**K: Showing His Titan Friends Around - It can certainly be done at some point in the future. Whether or not it will be done immediately after the events of this raid is another matter though. And on the subject of the Mokele Mbembe and Grootslang, you do remember how Beast Boy already encountered an entire herd of brontopods (the Mokele Mbembe species) alongside Wildebeest, Ambush, and Jungle Cat in a previous chapter right? And as for the grootslangs, I'm still not entirely certain if he's ever even met any of them in this version of continuity judging by how he had to be given a bit of exposition on the way they are in this version of continuity from Jungle Cat and Ambush in the same chapter where they encountered the brontopod herd. But regardless, I'm sure that Beast Boy will allow his Titan friends to meet his tribal companions and visit his 'home village' at some point or other in the future ^_^**

**All that out of the way, ONWARD WITH THE FIC EVERYONE!**

**Chapter 16:**

**The Worst Family Reunion Ever**

Beast Boy tensed up, his eyes widened and face turning a lighter shade of green at the sound of the voice he'd just heard from behind him. It was a voice he knew all too well; one that belonged to a man that he'd legitimately hoped to never see alive again after the last time he'd ever seen him in the flesh as opposed to in a dream, memory, or (in the case of at least one notable instance) brief fear induced hallucination. "It can't be," he thought nervously to himself. "Somebody tell me I'm just hearing things."

"You're not," said the Beast. "We heard it to."

"I know you heard me," said the unwelcomely familiar voice behind the changeling. "Those ears of yours have heard much quieter stuff from considerably further behind you. I would know, I witnessed as much. Now why don't you act like a proper gentleman and turn around to face me. We've got a lot of catching up to do after all."

Steeling himself for the inevitable, Beast Boy turned around to look behind him, a narrow-eyed glare already on his face. And sure enough, standing behind him with a smug wolf-like grin on his face was a fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and messy black haired adult man that he would have recognized anywhere regardless of how much he'd wanted to forget him in the years since their last being together in the same room. "Galtry," he growled, his voice low and filled with tranquil fury.

Nicholas Galtry chuckled. "Come now Craig," he purred. "Is that any way to speak to your uncle."

Beast Boy snarled, pointing his right finger accusingly at his uncle. "You lost the right to be referred to as my uncle years ago! The things you did to me? They should have gotten you behind bars for life! And my name isn't Craig! It's Garfield! How many times do I have to tell you that?!"

As he said this, there was one part of him alongside the part that currently felt the bravery and anger he was expressing that felt the same terrible fear he'd felt for so many years whenever thinking about his cruel and despicable uncle. And at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder why Dr. Rookwood hadn't mentioned Galtry over the course of the earlier conversations with her. After all, the shapeshifter now had good reason to believe that Galtry was the man who'd been serving as Chang's benefactor, and it was entirely likely that Rookwood and the rest of the Wildebeest Society members, plus Chang and his goons, had been aware of the familial connection the two had shared.

But then he also remembered how, not too long after the mutants and tribal warriors had met him at the rendezvous point after he'd gotten the kasai-rex in position, Nyota had mentioned something about Rookwood seemingly remembering something important at the last minute that she'd wanted to mention, only for Nyota herself to just hurry up and reapply the gag and leave to join back up with the raiding party due to a mixture of pridefully believing she and the rest of the raiding party already had enough information available to be able to handle whatever it was Rookwood had just remembered as well as an impulsive desire to not want to keep the raiding party waiting too long for her to join back up with them. In that instant, Beast Boy mentally cursed this mixture of traits Nyota had. While she could be plenty nice and friendly in times of peace, there were also times he remembered from his childhood where she had also proven far too proud and impulsive for her own good. And clearly, this was another example of such a case. Especially if _this_ was the 'important detail' that Nyota had impeded Rookwood's efforts at revealing. "Damn it Nyota," he thought to himself.

Galtry chuckled once more. "Defiant as ever I see." He nodded his head. "And I will say this, you've certainly made quite a name for yourself since you left my custody. Kind of like your father now that I think about it. Clearly the apple didn't fall far from the tree."

Beast Boy snarled again. "I guess there must have been a tornado when _yours_ fell."

Galtry's eyes narrowed. "Very funny," he growled. He then shook his head. "Well regardless, I'm sure you know very well what I want from you."

"You got that right," Beast Boy growled, his own eyes also narrowed, and his teeth gritted menacingly. "And you're not gonna get either of them."

"That's an awfully bold claim to make here boy," Galtry noted, his eyebrow raised.

"Good," Beast Boy growled, trying desperately to keep himself from showing any signs of the fear he was feeling alongside his anger, while also managing to notice what looked like a conveniently present large slab of metal lying on the floor nearby the safe containing the Primetia antidote. "Because I'm not a little kid anymore Galtry. I'm a teen, and a trained hero. And because of that, I can now do something that I couldn't do against you back then."

"And what might that be?"

"Fight."

Without warning, Beast Boy turned into an octopus, grabbed the lying around sheet of metal with one of his tentacles, and threw it right at Galtry. The adult man had just enough time to widen his eyes and just barely drop to the floor in time to avoid getting creamed by the sheet of metal. But even though his uncle didn't get hit by the metal, the fact that it got thrown at him, plus his hurried dodging technique, nonetheless distracted the man long enough for Beast Boy to shift back to human form, return his attention to the safe, and start entering in the code. "N. Y. U. M. B…"

The sudden sound of a whoosh, and the equally sudden agonizing feeling of something sharp jabbing into his left shoulder from behind caused Beast Boy to halt his entering in of the code and rear back, howling reflexively from the pain in his shoulder. He was still howling when he managed to slip and fall, with only his managing to successfully grab onto the safe with both hands in a reflexive action preventing him from falling to his face on the floor. Gritting his teeth, hissing in agony, he managed to force his eyes open and look towards his left shoulder, at which point his eyes widened at the sight of what appeared to be some sort of needle attached to a bungee cord-like string stabbing him there. And what was even more unusual was that the syringe seemed to be acting entirely on its own as it extracted what appeared to be a sample of his blood that completely filled it up.

"You said I wouldn't be getting anything from you."

Beast Boy directed his gaze towards Galtry, who now appeared rather darkly amused while holding a mechanical gun-like device that the syringe and string were attached to. "Yet here I am on the verge of successfully gaining one of the two things I want from you. You sure you're as capable of handling yourself against me as you think?"

The shapeshifter snarled. "You got lucky this time." He looked at the syringe. "What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm extracting a sample of your blood."

Once the syringe was completely filled, Galtry pressed a button that caused the syringe to extract itself from the changeling and retract back to its former position at the barrel. "As of this moment," the older man said as he detached the syringe from the string and lifted it up to his face. "I have successfully extracted a sample of your blood containing a complete sequence of the animorph mutagen within you that grants you your powers of shapeshifting into animals." He let his earlier grin come back on his face. "Remember all that hard work I put into figuring out that formula back when you were still a little kid? I made sure to keep the data I'd managed to get ahold of before your escape safe and within my possession. And as a result, all I needed to do was figure out the correct way to fill in the blanks that remained, and I'd have all that I'd need to know to recreate its power for myself. And thanks to the drones I had implanted within you alongside the Primetia sample you're currently infected with, I had everything I needed to ensure that this here machine I just used would know the correct genetic sequence to target and extract a sample of."

Beast Boy's eyes very briefly widened upon hearing his uncle mention that drones had been implanted in his body, but he hurriedly worked to hide the fact. At the same time, he also remembered what the Beast had mentioned during their 'dream meeting' the previous evening about some sort of metallic presence that had apparently entered his body alongside the virus and had been poking around in the various strands of animal DNA within his system. "That must have been the drones Galtry just mentioned," he thought to himself.

"And with one half of your earlier bold claim now so easily broken through your own carelessness…"

Beast Boy immediately directed his full attention back to Galtry in time to see his uncle very swiftly lowered the collar of his suit so that the right side of his neck would be exposed while also getting his hand that was holding the syringe positioned so that it was pointing directly towards the newly exposed area. "Let's see if you can do any better at stopping me from breaking the other half now that we both no longer have any reason to hold back!" He jabbed the syringe into his neck, pressing on the plunger and letting his nephew's blood sample enter his veins within seconds after doing so.

Beast Boy, now realizing with all too real horror just what was now on the verge of possibly happening, tried desperately to get himself to move so that he could perhaps still somehow prevent his uncle from injecting the entirety of the sample into him. But the pain from the injection he'd received that had resulted in that sample's extraction was very strong, and by the time he'd successfully gotten back on his feet and turned around to face his uncle, he could only gape with a sinking heart as he saw Galtry remove the now empty syringe from his neck.

"Ah," the older man exhaled, a clear look of excitement on his face. "I have only just finished injecting the mutagen into my bloodstream, and already I'm feeling such power in me!" He closed his eyes and nodded his head. "Oh yes," he said to himself, damn near purring as he felt the power of the mutagen now rapidly taking affect within his veins, changing him, mutating him, filling him with power that even now continued to excite him. "I can feel it," he purred. "I can feel it." He suddenly opened his eyes, revealing them to now be an ominous ruby red. "I CAN FEEL IT!"

Immediately after he yelled this, Galtry started laughing, the volume and intensity of the sound rapidly increasing to the point that he managed within seconds to reach 'maniacal cackling', all while the rest of his body continued to change in response to the mutagen just as his eyes had done. And as he continued laughing, his ruby colored eyes agleam and his still in pain nephew helplessly watching, his skin turned a bright scarlet red, his already messy black hair grew even longer and messier to the point that it went down past his shoulders and seemed almost like a lion's mane while also turning a shade of red considerably darker than the shade his eyes and skin had taken, his ears elongated and turned pointed like an elf's, his fingernails elongated into sharp claws, and his teeth likewise grew longer and more like fangs. And unlike Beast Boy's teeth, _all_ of Galtry's teeth became sharp pointed fangs.

Once the mutation had finished, Galtry briefly bent over, his hands resting upon his knees as he panted and gasped. Painless as the mutation had appeared, it had clearly still taken a lot of energy out of him. As this happened, Beast Boy took deep breaths and exhaled multiple times, working to steel himself up and gain back as much energy as he could. For he already had a feeling of what he would need to do. He had initially hoped that the mutation would be painful to Galtry as it had been for him, and that he'd be able to take advantage of that to knock him out of the vault and slam it shut with himself still inside so that he'd have time to give himself the cure while his uncle was still writhing around from the mutation induced pain. But since the mutation had apparently caused no pain for Galtry and also not taken nearly as long as the green shapeshifter had hoped, he now had no choice but to take a different course of action that he could only hope right now would pay off in the end. Fortunately, he now noticed that the earlier pain he'd been feeling from the syringe used to extract the blood sample that had now mutated his uncle was now almost completely gone, and he could certainly stand and move once more without aid or running the risk of instantly falling over.

Much to his luck, he had just enough time to fully prepare before Galtry then straightened up, his head still lowered. The red skinned man chuckled. "It is mine. At long last, it is finally mine! The power! Such power! It is now mine to wield! And I alone shall now wield it! For now it is time to claim the other thing of yours that I desire! Right now!" He snapped his head up to face his nephew, maniacal wolf-like grin on his face. "PREPARE TO…!"

He didn't even have time to allow his face to convey his sudden shock before he got rammed right in the stomach by a lunging green bighorn sheep. The uncle and nephew both went flying out of the vault, crashing to a landing against the wall directly in front of it, the older of the two grunting in pain from the combined impact of both his nephew's horned head from the front and the wall from behind.

With his uncle temporarily out of commission, Beast Boy backed away from Galtry, shifted back to human form, and hurriedly closed and locked the vault once more. He had literally _just_ finished locking the vault when he heard a voice say, "What are you doing?!" He turned around, barely managing to hide his shock at how swiftly his uncle had recovered.

Narrowing his eyes, the green skinned changeling pointed his finger at the vault. "We both need what's in that vault Galtry. I was originally going to cure myself first before doing this, but you didn't take as long to finish mutating, nor feel as much pain in the process, as I'd expected. And knowing you, if you got the chance to successfully cure yourself first, odds are you'll probably destroy the other sample just to spite me before you kill me." He took a combat ready position, a determined look on his face. "You want that cure? You're gonna have to go through me."

Galtry stared blankly at his nephew. But then his earlier grin returned, and he chuckled maliciously. "So that's what you wanna play huh? Very well, this shouldn't take long at all. Let us begin!" Without warning, Galtry turned into a wild boar, his fancy black suit and shoes getting horribly ripped up and destroyed in the process and bolted straight at Beast Boy. But Beast Boy had already been prepared for such a tactic, and he turned back into a bighorn sheep in time to lunge towards his uncle at the same time. The olive-green bighorn sheep and scarlet-red wild boar collided in midair, their heads pounding together. And just like that, the battle was on.

. . . . .

At the same time that Beast Boy and Galtry were beginning their clash, Starfire was busy flying around trying with all her might to prevent herself from ending up on the wrong end of Dr. Constance Morales's electro whip or foudre knives. "Stay still you freak," Morales snarled as she rapidly threw another flurry of her knives at the still airborne Tamaranean.

Starfire continued to hurriedly soar through the air above the Latina, constantly changing direction whenever possible for the sake of avoiding the various knives tossed her way as well as the occasional lash of her opponent's lightning whip. "I am the sorry, but I'd much prefer not to."

This seemed to annoy her flightless opponent, who shrieked in rage drew out five knives, and threw all of them at once straight towards the Tamaranean, who just as swiftly responded by hurling a star bolt at them. The orb of vivid green flames crashed into the five knives, reduced them to ash in midair, and hurtled straight towards Constance, who was forced to jump backwards just in time to avoid getting roasted.

This lull in the Latina's rapid-fire string of attacks was enough to allow Starfire the chance to start going on the offensive herself, grunting from exertion as she hurled star bolt after star bolt at her opponent, who kept jumping, stumbling, and similarly working desperately to avoid getting blasted. But eventually, the opportunity to turn the tide presented itself, and Morales managed to swiftly draw her voltage whip out of her belt once more in time to send a star bolt flying back towards the Tamaranean with a single lash.

Starfire dove towards the floor in time to avoid getting blasted, only to then shriek when the very star bolt she'd just dodged hit the ceiling above her and caused a small cave-in, with some of the resulting rubble landing on her back and sending her plummeting to the floor with a thud. Starfire was not pinned down for long though, and she was able to shove the rubble off of her and get on her hands and knees, only for her eyes to widen at the sight of the voltage whip being lashed at her once again; at which point she hurriedly lunged aside just in time, the violently crackling lash slamming into the floor and seemingly cutting a miniature crevasse into the area where the Tamaranean had been positioned mere seconds prior. Knowing immediately that she needed to act before her opponent had the chance to attack again, Starfire turned her head and shot a jet of star bolt energy at the Latina. The burst of green flames plowed into Morales and sent her flying backward, losing her hold on her whip in the process. Morales still hadn't yet landed after getting hit by the star bolt jet when Starfire removed herself from the meeting room wall and left the room to see if she could find a somewhat more ideal place for her to continue the fight.

. . . . .

Robin and Dr. Lagrange continued rapidly clashing their respective weapons together in their duel on the catwalk, teeth gritted, and eyes narrowed from all the focus they were putting into their attacks. Lagrange snarled, his dark eyes icy with determination as he continued to swing and thrust his rapier at lightning speed in a furious effort at getting the better of the Boy Wonder, who even now seemed completely calm in his defense despite fighting with similar speed and having a similar look on his own face. Eventually, they reached the point of slamming both their weapons together and pushing against each other as the rapier and bo staff seemed to battle for dominance.

"Looks like the Dark Knight taught you well," Lagrange growled as he pressed the blade of his rapier as hard as he could against the surprisingly durable metal staff in his younger opponent's gloved hands.

"Funny," Robin grunted. "I could say the same about whoever trained you."

They both withdrew their weapons, reared back with guttural yells, and then started swinging at each other once again. But eventually, Lagrange decided to pull a fast one on the Boy Wonder, feinting as if about to slice at the young caped crusader from the left at a high angle, only to suddenly swing from the right at a low angle instead. Robin just barely dodged in time to avoid getting a nasty gash across his stomach, and he still had to hurry to get his bo staff positioned in time to smack the rapier aside when Lagrange subsequently attempted to stab him through the chest with a single forward thrust of the blade.

Fortunately, the force of the staff slamming against the rapier and knocking it off target was enough to cause Lagrange himself to end up briefly stumbling backwards off balance, giving the Boy Wonder enough time to swipe his opponent's legs out from under him with a swing of the bo staff. The older man fell on his back several feet ahead, and the Boy Wonder immediately started rushing towards him, his bo staff drawn back as if ready to be swung down upon the downed Lagrange.

But Lagrange was not as helpless after landing as Robin had thought. For while still on his back, he lifted his legs to the point that his backside seemed to lift up from the catwalk, and then snapped them back so fast that he seemed to send his entire body flying forward in a devastating kick attack. Left with no time to stop or dodge, Robin was pounded in the chest with both of Lagrange's feet, at which point he was sent stumbling backwards, managing in the process to lose his grip on his bo staff, which went flying over the rail to his right and plummeted down to the floor far below. And as the young caped crusader kept stumbling away, Lagrange landed smoothly back on the catwalk, reclaimed his rapier, and rushed towards his opponent, howling in preemptive triumph as he positioned his blade for a devastating finishing thrust through the younger warrior's chest.

But Robin was not as helpless in the circumstances as Lagrange had expected. For upon noticing Lagrange charging in to kill him, the Boy Wonder hurriedly drew out two birdarangs from his belt and placed them together in the ever so familiar way that allowed them to merge together into his trusty sword, which he swung into position just in time to knock aside what would have otherwise been a devastating stabbing. In fact, the impact between the two blades was enough to cause actual sparks to fly from the contact. Lagrange stumbled backwards, just barely keeping hold of his rapier, clearly caught off guard by the Boy Wonder having successfully deflected what he'd been evidently quite certain would be a successful killing blow.

When Lagrange finally regained his footing, Robin chose to speak once more. "You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to take me down!"

"Evidently so."

Lagrange pressed on the tip of the hilt, revealing that there was a button in that area that Robin hadn't noticed before this moment. In a flash, the single blade on the scientist's rapier transformed into a mighty serrated saber. He raised the transformed blade up in a threatening position. "I was willing to go easy on you," the scientist said as he prepared himself for further fighting. "But now, since you are clearly proving yourself a much more worthy opponent than I initially expected, the gloves are off!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

With another guttural yell of rage in unison, the two warriors charged each other once again to resume their duel. And within seconds, the two massive blades were clashing violently together once more.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the gym, Cyborg and Dr. Azimi were still brutally duking it out.

"Say cheese!" Azimi screamed as he fired another burst of his camera cannon. Cyborg ducked just in time for the massive red laser to blast a sizable hole in a nearby wall.

"Good grief," the half metal hero thought to himself. "At this rate…"

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard running feet coming towards him, and he looked up in time to see the middle eastern scientist rushing towards him with his titanium knuckles already at the ready for a punch. He had just enough time to subsequently lift both of his fists into position for a block before Azimi's right fist pounded against the block and sent him skidding towards the hole that had been blasted into the wall. He landed on his back at least two feet away from said hole.

He managed to groan from the impact before he heard Azimi running towards him again. But this time he was ready to act, and he prepared his sonic cannon immediately before trying to get up. As a result, Azimi was sent flying backwards by the low power burst of sonic energy Cyborg subsequently sent his way. Eager to press his newfound advantage, Cyborg hurriedly leaped to his feet and started running towards his downed opponent, already drawing his right fist back for a punch. Unfortunately, Saul recovered quickly, and he jumped to his own feet in time to draw out his camera cannon and fire another blast at his charging opponent. And this time, Cyborg was unable to dodge in time. Thus he went flying backward through the hole that had been blasted into one of the walls not too long ago, and subsequently put holes in at least three more walls before he finally came to a stop in what appeared to be a miniature tech factory. Cyborg managed to get back to his feet, wincing from the pain of the blast as well as his landing. He'd just managed to get a good look at just where he now was when he heard Saul say, "I see you've reached the technician station." The half metal hero turned his head towards where the voice had come from in time to see his middle eastern scientist opponent enter through the nearby doorway. "And all the better for me you did so. After all, I was just in need of a refill on film." As he said this, he pressed a button on his cannon, causing the back end of it to open up like a drawer. And no sooner had he done so when he reached into a nearby crate and drew out what appeared to be ten slides of what Cyborg now guessed must have been ammunition for the cannon. Saul slipped the ammo refill into the open ammo compartment, closed the compartment, and aimed the cannon at Cyborg once more. "Now where were we?" He purred as he charged the cannon up for yet another blast.

. . . . .

In a flash of shadowy energy, Raven found herself in what appeared to be some sort of meadow surrounded by a ring of columns similar to the kind one would find on a Greek or Roman temple, landing in an undignified heap. Arronax appeared on the opposite side of the meadow, landing perfectly on both feet. "I presume you recognize this place?"

Raven glared at the ginger haired man, but then managed to get a good look at the area they now appeared to have arrived in, and her purple eyes widened. "This…this looks just like a similar meadow in the Azarath city gardens…"

"The resemblance was a deliberate decision on my part." Arronax nodded his head. "This very meadow was one of my favorite places to visit when I lived in Azarath. And after my very much unexpected departure, I made sure to have the pocket dimension I'd magically set aside as a means to have a private place to train in my combat and magic skills bear as close of a resemblance to that very place as possible, feeling that it would be a good way to remind myself of my old home. And in all fairness, there's every chance I'd have continued taking occasional visits to this meadow in Azarath for the rest of my life. If it hadn't been for you."

At this, Raven narrowed her eyes, and turned to face the ginger haired Wildebeest Society leader once more. "Whatever you might think, I was not involved in your departure from Azarath. Tell you the truth, I didn't even know you were still alive Arronax; or should I say, Juris?"

The Wildebeest Society leader glared, his blue eyes narrowed icily. "You weren't completely wrong to think as much. After all, my physical body was destroyed by your father's blast. But through sheer willpower, I allowed myself to stay in the realm of the living as a spirit, binding myself to the medallion that I even now still wear around my neck." He gestured at the medallion around his neck. "And as a result of my having tethered myself to it, I naturally ended up sealing myself up inside it so that I would have a place of refuge while waiting for a sufficient host body. And of course, naturally, when Azar and the rest of the monks and nuns on her side chose to cast the amulet into the void between dimensions so as to not be reminded constantly of me and what, in their eyes, was a betrayal I'd committed against them, I naturally ended up stuck there for a while. In the end, I only managed through an immensely powerful channeling of my power to access and enter a rift within the void that led to Earth, the very planet that you were destined to allow Trigon the ability to destroy immediately after his planned similar destruction of Azarath."

He rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately, what I didn't realize until long after I'd arrived on the other side of the rift was that it just so happened to be a temporal rift; and by sheer chance, I ended up arriving on Earth at a time that occurred long before you were even born. And I didn't even find _that_ out until I happened to notice a newspaper that was being read by a local Earth dweller who happened to find my amulet lying around and take it with him when he left the area. And considering just how weak I was at the time from all the energy I'd expended in order to both keep myself shielded from destruction while in the void _and_ successfully enter the rift that brought me here, it was a miracle that I was even able to notice what the man who'd since found and started wearing my medallion was reading. But in the time it took for me to gain my strength, I managed to notice just what sort of people the man wearing my medallion was working for; and by the time my strength had been fully replenished, I had the perfect plan in mind for my second attempt at preventing Trigon's plans of conquest, as well as more than enough time to get it prepared."

Raven raised her eyebrow. "And just what might this new plan of yours have to do with the Wildebeest Society?"

"It has everything to do with the Wildebeest Society. For you see, the man who had found my medallion and placed it around his neck was the then leader of a simple crime cartel with a side degree in genetic engineering known as the Wildebeest Gang. And I had arrived on Earth just one month before that very cartel was later rebranded as what you now know as the Wildebeest Society."

"And how is a bunch of criminals who dabble in genetic engineering supposed to be capable of killing me?"

"Surely you remember the tales of Azulon the Raven?"

Raven raised her eyebrow yet again, now feeling even more confused. "I do," she responded. "Azar told me them many times when I was a child. He is a popular trickster character in Azarathian folklore. He is a white raven capable of human speech that also possesses immense wit and intelligence that he commonly uses to outwit and defeat his various enemies, all of which are much bigger and stronger than him."

"And surely you remember which of those enemies was the one he faced most often in those stories?"

"Ozaru the Bull. But what does that…?"

"Are you aware of what a male wildebeest is called?"

Raven narrowed her eyes at the interruption…only for her eyes to then widen as the dots finally connected. "A bull."

"Exactly."

Juris nodded his head, a wide grin now on his face. "And once I'd fully realized what I now had within my reach thanks to the man who'd found my medallion and placed it around his neck, I knew that I had found a means to defeat you that couldn't have been more thematically appropriate. After all, since you yourself were named after Azulon's species, what better way for me to destroy you than with an army themed after Ozaru? And not only did I plan to use that army to kill you, but I also have plans to lead that army to Azarath to rid it of your father's influence. And from there, with Azar no doubt dead and the land likely having been leaderless for a long while since your father brought about his version of the apocalypse upon it, I plan to take her place as the temple's religious leader and allow yet another rebirth to Azarath and its customs with myself at Azar's helm and my four most trusted Wildebeest Society scientists as my new chief monks and nuns. And from there, I plan to also send out my army into the rest of the worlds beyond, where they will be tasked to find and destroy all further signs that remain of your father's influence. For immortals have no greater enemy than being forgotten. And once I am fully successful in my plans, there will be no memory or knowledge left of him, which will in turn cause him to languish in the void before eventually fading from existence altogether."

"That still doesn't explain just _how_ such an army would be capable of taking me down," Raven stated, partially out of hope that keeping him talking would stall him long enough for her to gain the energy she needed to perhaps escape from the pocket dimension Juris had transported them to and half out of genuine curiosity as to his plans. And she had to admit, while she wasn't entirely certain as to the accuracy of what Juris believed would be the potential end result of his plans, she certainly didn't see any harm in getting the full idea behind his current actions either.

"I was hoping I'd get the opportunity to explain." Juris nodded his head. "To start, once I'd fully regained my energy and thought out my plan, I proceeded to absorb the cartel leader's entire mind into my own, effectively killing him, so that I could take full control of his body and act from there."

Raven's eyes widened. "You took a human life?! That's a violation of Azarath's most sacred law!"

Juris only smirked. "Well I wasn't exactly in Azarath anymore. Not to mention, I'd already tried to kill you; so at that point, why not go all the way? And he was only the first such host whose mind I absorbed into my own. For you see, every time one of the men I possessed to serve as leader of the Wildebeest Society was on death's door while I was possessing them, I would always have my medallion passed on to the most immediate chosen successor; at which point I would pull the same trick on said successor as I had done with the predecessors, passing on my mind and magic to them as I had done with every leader I possessed before. This body I currently possess is only the latest of the men I've possessed for the sake of my goals, and one that you've no doubt noticed just so happens to bear immensely high resemblance to how my own original body looked before I got blasted to ash and cast into the void. And say what you will about the number of men I've essentially killed by absorbing their minds into my own. Considering how, once I've killed you and then rid the universe of all elements of your father's influence afterward, I will have ended up saving countless other lives, I daresay that sacrificing a few lives for the cause will be a fairly small price to pay."

He nodded his head. "And that in mind, now for the real meat of the matter. While acting as leader of the newly christened Wildebeest Society, I naturally allowed them to continue their work as criminal geneticists. In fact, I myself even took part in several of their other crimes before we eventually had the more active criminal activity not related to genetics phased out in favor of the geneticist work. And regardless of how many other projects I allowed my organization to take part in for the sake of money and keeping up appearances, the one that always took highest priority was the creation of soldiers for my planned army. In fact, I was so aware of how important that particular element was that, in the early days of the organization prior to my getting enough hybrids created to make even a reasonably sizable army, I always made sure to only ever have one hybrid actively wreak havoc on the Society's enemies at a time so as to disguise their numbers. And even all this took a comparative backseat to the eventual creation of Project Baby Wildebeest."

"What was so important about that project?" Raven asked.

"The answer's quite simple. He was intended to serve as the perfect leader for my army of wildebeest hybrid soldiers; perfectly balanced in that he would hold absolute authority over his lesser brethren amongst the hybrids, have an independent will and mind of his own, and still have enough loyalty to myself and my inner circle so as to not lead the hybrids against us in an uprising. But most importantly, once he was deemed absolutely ready and prepared for his destined purpose…"

At this point, he clenched his hands together, fingers intertwining and a wolf-like grin coming on his face. "He was intended to be my ultimate and final host."

Raven raised her eyebrow. "And why was he intended to be your host? If he was blatantly designed to fight me, wouldn't he be powerful enough on his own without you controlling him?"

"Physically speaking, yes. But with my mind and spirit inside him, he would have the additional edge he'd need to be a worthy match against you. After all, he could hardly be a true leader for the rest of the hybrids if he had to constantly be given instructions from someone higher ranking like myself. But as my host body, this would no longer be an issue. For my brains and magic combined with his brawn would allow us both to serve together as just the right warrior to combat against you and anyone else who acts under your father's allegiance. And while he has admittedly ended up doing so in ways that I wouldn't have really preferred, it is entirely possible that, through the time he's spent actively working alongside you since his escape, he's now finally prepared to take charge of his herd and become my host."

At this point, he directed his gaze back at Raven, blue eyes agleam with triumph. "Though I will freely admit, I wasn't expecting to get the opportunity to finally get rid of you without even needing to pass my spirit into his body beforehand. But I suppose he'll still be useful to me when I move on to rid the rest of the universe of your father's influence immediately after I've killed you."

At this point, Raven narrowed her eyes, and placed her hands on her hips, half intrigued by all the information she'd just learned; especially over how Wildebeest himself had apparently been designed with the intention of serving as a weapon to be used as the instrument of her murder; but also less than enthused about how Juris even now still planned to try to kill her despite there now seemingly being no reason for him to do so. "Well I hate to break it to you, but at this point you're just wasting your time. In case you haven't noticed, the day of my father's attempt at spreading his apocalypse to Earth and the rest of the universe has already come and gone, and I myself managed to send him back to the void where he'd been imprisoned beforehand within hours after he'd claimed Earth. And that was two years ago, not to mention I'm now 17 going on 18. Simply put, considering the prophecy you were hoping to prevent from ever happening has already been both fulfilled and overturned over the course of a single night and day two years ago, there's not really much of a point now in trying to kill me."

"So you claim, _Gem_."

The ginger haired man's eyes narrowed. "But demons lie, and you are half demon. You could yet be lying. And even in the event that what you say is true, how am I to know for certain that your father won't come back? That you yourself won't be responsible for as much if he does? And even without all that to consider, why is that even now I still feel Azarath suffering as if his apocalypse is still in effect there despite him supposedly having been defeated as you claim? If you are indeed telling the truth, then why would you not have banished him from Azarath when you supposedly banished him from here?"

"What are you talking about? Azarath was freed from his curse when I banished him back to the void, just like Earth was…"

"You are wrong! Even now I can feel Azarath's pain, and it is suffering in such a way that only Trigon himself could make a world suffer! Regardless of what you claim, his influence is still active in Azarath, causing it great pain and agony! And as long as you continue to draw breath, not only will Azarath continue to suffer, but Earth itself, plus the rest of the universe, will likewise be at risk of suffering in the same way once the time finally comes for you to unleash him upon this planet as you did to Azarath!"

At this point, Raven clenched her fists, her purple eyes smoldering with rage and her teeth gritted in a silent snarl. "What I did…?! You blame me for what happened to Azarath after I left?!"

"How else could he have bypassed the defenses in his natural form?! You know perfectly well how strong the spells designed to deny him access to any dimension while in his natural form are! And simply put, out of all the potential beings that could have had the power to even weaken them sufficiently enough to allow him to break through, let alone outright open a gate that would allow him to bypass them while they're at full strength, you're the only option that could have possibly been responsible!"

"How?! I wasn't even there when it happened! I didn't even know he'd managed to escape and lay waste to Azarath until at least a week or so after I'd turned 16!"

"So. You. Claim."

Raven's eyes narrowed once more. At this point, it now seemed quite clear to her that the former Azarathian monk was beyond help. With the countless years he'd now spent reduced to a restless spirit, forced to rely on possession of various bodies that were not his own in order to stay 'alive', and with only his single minded desire to protect Azarath and the worlds beyond to keep him going, his desperation to fulfill the same well-intentioned, but ultimately misguided, goal that had gotten him reduced to his current state had driven him insane. And despite having managed to maintain a veneer of calm and sound mindedness in the years leading up to this current moment, it had all too easily been stripped away now that he seemed to finally have the opportunity to attain that goal right there in front of him.

He shook his head side to side, glare still on his face. "Enough is enough. I grow tired now of this chatter. And as long as you draw breath, both Azarath and all the worlds beyond will be doomed to suffer from your father's evil. And at this point, I've waited long enough." He lifted his hands, fingers now crackling with electricity. "I will wait no longer, Gem! Prepare to die!"

In that instant, Raven had just enough time to hurriedly melt into the shadows and teleport to safety behind Juris before the lightning he shot from his fingers struck the ground right where she'd been standing seconds prior. And just like that, the battle was on.

. . . . .

Ambush ducked her head, an orb of darkness that would have otherwise hit her right in the face zooming inches above her as a result. Then she hurriedly jumped aside to avoid getting her legs pinioned together by a series of roots that suddenly sprang out of the floor where she'd been standing. "I could use a little help here," she shrieked as she continued trying to avoid the attacks that Night Howler and Grizzly Girl were sending her way.

Jungle Cat, at that point trying desperately to avoid getting thrown off of the completely crystallized Rhinestone, who was now furiously swinging his head and body side to side in a violent effort to get rid of the unwanted passenger he now had sitting upon his neck and shoulders and holding onto one of his horns. "Kinda busy here," he hissed.

At the sound of snarling seemingly coming from the ceiling, the lion mutant looked up; at which point he paled at the sight of Swamp Gator positioned on the ceiling similarly to a gecko, and with his head turned to face him while having both his jaws fully open and what appeared to be a burst of his acid breath attack rapidly charging up for release.

"Oh great."

Desperate to avoid getting sprayed by his brainwashed friend's acid breath, Jungle Cat let go of Rhinestone's horn and hurriedly lunged off the rhino mutant's back just in time to avoid getting engulfed by the spout of acid that was sent spewing from the crocodile mutant's mouth. Rhinestone similarly avoided getting engulfed by virtue of having been knocked face-first against the floor by the force in which Jungle Cat's foot had pounded against his back when propelling himself off, and he directed an annoyed glare at Swamp Gator. "Watch where you spit you fool! You could have sprayed me!"

"Sorry," Swamp Gator hissed, not sounding remotely sorry in his current brainwashed state. "But newsflash, you're invulnerable while in your current crystallized state. You'd have been fine."

"And if I hadn't been crystallized?!"

Swamp Gator didn't even have the chance to respond to this before a burst of Jungle Cat's roar slammed into him hard enough to send him rocketing straight through the ceiling, leaving a comically shaped hole in the ceiling as a result of the crocodile mutant getting sent flying into the air over the lab building's roof.

Unfortunately, when the lion mutant looked to Rhinestone, the rhino mutant was already charging his way once more. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Mentally swearing, Jungle Cat hurriedly started running, desperate to avoid getting smashed or gored by the once again charging Rhinestone.

Meanwhile, Ambush had found herself in a very unpleasant situation. In a brief few seconds in which she'd distractedly placing all her focus on Grizzly Girl, she'd managed to completely forget that Night Howler had still been in the area. And now, the wolf mutant had managed to get the drop on her, and was now using her shadowy powers to hold her in place in midair above the corridor floor from behind while the now _very_ triumphant looking Grizzly Girl prepared to extend one of her finger nails into a branch at a positioning that would allow her to impale the tigress mutant straight through the heart.

"Ursula, Claire, please!" Ambush whimpered, desperately trying to squirm her way out of the shadowy energy restraints around her wrists and ankles that were keeping her trapped in midair above the floor between her two brainwashed mutant gal pals. "Don't do this!"

"Master says you are enemy," the ursine mutant growled, white eyes glowing bright from the mind control, and one of her fingers already resting upon Ambush's chest. "Master says you must die or surrender. And since you refuse to surrender, you must die. Because what master wants, master gets."

"Indeed," Night Howler smiled, brow furrowed in concentration as she maintained her mental hold on Ambush's shadowy restraints. "You're finished beast. Nothing short of a miracle will get you out of this. And I know perfectly well you're not capable of just randomly pulling such things from out of the sky…"

It was at that very instant that Swamp Gator finally came down from his brief trip skyward, crashing back through the roof and landing right on top of Night Howler. The lupine mutant hissed in surprise and discomfort as her dazed boyfriend abruptly landed on top of her from the sky, losing her concentration in the process. Grizzly Girl was also startled by this turn of events into stumbling a couple steps backwards. Thus Ambush was freed when her shadowy restraints burst into harmless shadowy mist, and she fell to the floor on her feet.

Immediately after fully realizing she was free to get away, the tigress mutant hurriedly took several gymnastics style flips backwards and away from her two brainwashed gal pals before skidding to a stop near where Jungle Cat had been positioned. She then turned invisible right as it looked like the three dazed and out of commission mutants seemed on the verge of full recovery.

"HELP!"

Ambush's eyes widened, her invisible body tensing up. Jungle Cat was clearly in trouble. Remaining invisible, she hurried through the corridors, desperately searching for her boyfriend so that she could help him. When she finally did find him, she very nearly slipped and fell on her backside in sheer shock and horror at the state he was in. At that moment, he was laid out on the floor of one of the corridors, clearly bruised, bloodied, and beaten up as he sat on the floor and had his back and head up against a large wall of black crystal that had somehow erupted from the floor behind him. And the clear culprit responsible for this, Rhinestone, was standing not too far in front of him, his crystalline arms converted into the shape of spiked maces that he'd now lifted up as if in preparation for being slammed down upon the leonine mutant's head.

"Prepare to die," Rhinestone grumbled, his white eyes glowing blindingly bright.

In a flash, Ambush rushed into position directly between Rhinestone and Jungle Cat. "NO!" She screamed, clear horror and despair in her voice as she desperately lunged into position, her invisible eyes widened and on the verge of tears, and her invisible arms and hands outstretched in a seemingly futile effort at stopping the planned killing blow. But then, much to her shock, a massive shroud of brilliant white light suddenly materialized around her before then abruptly expanding into a gigantic flash of even more blindingly bright light.

Rhinestone reared up in shock, hissing in pain as he converted his hands out of their mace forms and slammed them over his eyes to try to block out the painfully bright burst of light. Jungle Cat also briefly hissed and covered his eyes from a mixture of both the pain he was already feeling and the bright light his girlfriend was unexpectedly giving off. But when the light finally stopped, with Ambush being revealed to have unexpectedly reverted out of her invisibility mode in the process, she hurriedly took advantage of Rhinestone still being blinded and out of commission by grabbing Jungle Cat, lifting him up in her arms, and running as far away from the rhino mutant as she could to get herself and her leonine mutant boyfriend to safety.

When Jungle Cat recovered, her looked up at Ambush. "That light," he managed to weakly say. "How did you do that?"

"No idea," Ambush panted, continuing to run and carry her boyfriend around.

At the sudden appearance of long sharp 'branches' extending through the air towards her and Jungle Cat, Ambush shrieked, managing to slip and land on her back over the course of her attempts at skidding to a stop, at which point the branches extended harmlessly over the two feline mutants, wriggling and snapping like whips. Clearly, Grizzly Girl had been planning to grab Jungle Cat and Ambush with her branch fingers and had been extending her fingers into position too quickly to change their course in time to still grab them when they both ended up ducking under her attack.

Her targets' unexpected evasion proved further detrimental to Grizzly Girl when a burst of Swamp Gator's acid breath, likely intended for Jungle Cat and Ambush, ended up instead engulfing segments of the ursine mutant's branch fingers instead. Grizzly Girl roared in pain as she hurriedly retracted the parts of her branch fingers that hadn't been melted down or detached from her as a result of the acid. Taking advantage of the two attackers' moment of distraction, Jungle Cat and Ambush hurriedly rolled to the side towards where the acid had come from, slid back onto their feet, and started running down that corridor, managing to avoid getting splashed by another burst of Swamp Gator's acid breath.

The crocodile mutant grumbled at the sight of his targets escaping and running down the corridor, and he hurriedly crawled across the ceiling he was positioned on to follow them, snarling and spewing acid their way whenever he could. At one point, he let a wide grin come on his scaly face at the sight of Jungle Cat seemingly skidding to a stop and halting. But then he paused, his white eyes narrowing in confusion when he noticed that, somehow without his noticing, Ambush had vanished. But then he tensed up in alarm at the feeling of something invisible grabbing his tail…before he was then just as abruptly yanked down from the ceiling and slammed down on the floor left and right, spun around through the air like a tetherball, and then sent flying right past Jungle Cat…at which point he then collided with what appeared to be a trio of humanoid wolves that looked exactly like Night Howler, sending the three lupine mutants collapsing to the floor like a set of bowling pins and bursting into shadowy mist like the phantoms they truly were. And no sooner had Swamp Gator finally skidded to a stop on the floor when the shadowy mist that the three false 'Night Howlers' had turned into soared through the air down another corridor as if to return to the original.

Ambush reverted from her invisibility mode after making it back to Jungle Cat's side. "You ok?"

"I am."

Jungle Cat nodded, and then pointed towards where the three Night Howler shadow clones had been. "But we'd better keep our eyes and ears open. The real Night Howler could be anywhere right now. Not to mention so could more clones…"

"Speak of the devil, and she will appear."

The two feline mutants tensed up, eyes widened and tails standing on end. Then they turned to look behind them just in time to see none other than the real Night Howler drop down onto the floor from a shadowy vortex that had just opened up in the ceiling, her white eyes blindingly bright, her teeth gritted in a vicious snarl, and her clawed finger nails already crackling with shadowy lightning.

"Any last words?"

. . . . .

In the basement arena, Tawaba, Mumbyo, and Nyota were already locked in furious combat against three of the unnerving white furred and red armored wildebeest hybrids, clashing their swords, and shield in Tawaba's case, against the vicious natural weapons of the hybrids. As of that moment, all three of the hybrids actively fighting against them had multiple wounds upon them, several of which were actually _bleeding_, yet were still standing and fighting as if they didn't feel a thing.

"What are these things?" Nyota asked herself, half disgusted and half unnerved by how little her opponent seemed to be effected by the vicious gashes she'd left on it with her sword.

"We are the ultrabeests," said the apparent leader of this group of hybrids, unnerving grin still on its furry face as it remained standing alongside its nine comrades that weren't actively fighting Tawaba and his children. "Brought into existence by the creator to serve as the elite honor guard for the one he created to serve as our overall herd leader, kept secret from even the creator's inner circle, and designed to be more than capable of serving this role when the time finally came for us to take it."

"I can imagine," Mumbyo grumbled dryly as he directed a withering glare at his grinning opponent, which was currently still standing and winding up for a swing of its right fist despite bleeding from severe gashes in its stomach, shoulders, under arms, and left leg. "These things can't even feel pain?!" Mumbyo thought to himself. "How are we supposed to defeat them?!" He had just enough time to think this latter question before he was forced to duck his head when his opponent finally swung its right fist towards his face.

Tawaba, meanwhile, was able to simultaneously listen to the lead ultrabeest's speech as well as remain locked in combat with his own opponent.

"The reason why we've kept ourselves hidden so long as a secret was because the creator explicitly wished for us to only come out of hiding when the planned leader was ready to be as much. And we were to only allow our existence to be made known to anyone other than the creator in the event of an absolute emergency. And at this point, it is clear that such a time has in fact come. After all, it is clear that you three will almost certainly kill the entire remainder of the herd up above us if we do not stop you here."

In that instant, the ultrabeest fighting Tawaba pounded its left foot against the chieftain king's shield in a powerful stomp kick, sending Tawaba stumbling backwards. The chieftain king was able to swiftly regain his balance without completely losing his footing and falling over but was still forced to hurriedly defend himself when his opponent abruptly barreled towards him as if about to try to ram its horned head against his stomach. Mumbyo and Nyota similarly found themselves forced to hurriedly defend themselves from an x-shaped slash and a snap of fanged teeth, respectively. All while the ultrabeest leader and its nine comrades that weren't already actively fighting smiled and laughed. It seemed quite clear that the tribal royal family would need some serious luck in this battle.

. . . . .

Dr. Amanda Rookwood, now very much free of her bonds and gag, briefly stood within the edges of the jungle, gaping in shock at the sight that lay before her. At that moment, she could see the main lab building in all its glory, but with smoke and fire rising up from within, the front door busted off its hinges and leaving the entrance gaping open, a massive hole blown into one of the concrete walls surrounding the building, and the dead body of the erumpent, which the two kasai-rex appeared to have been hungry enough to strip completely to its bones while also leaving its now detached horn lying around several feet to the left of it. Simply put, it was quite clear now that the raiders had already arrived and started their battle against the Wildebeest Society. Was there truly anything she could do now to help?

She reached into her lab coat's pockets and drew out her pistol and the jar of shamanistic combat powder that had been hidden inside her former 'cell' alongside the spear tip that had been provided for her to free herself with. In that instant, both weapons seemed hilariously ineffective in light of just what she had a feeling could very well currently be unfolding inside the lab.

But then she thought hard to herself about just how much effort she'd put in to get free and arrive back at the lab, how much she'd been hoping to be able to help in some way, and the tasks that she could yet still be capable of doing to provide assistance despite the fact that at least someone amongst the raiding party had almost certainly learned the hard way at this point about the information she'd forgotten about during her earlier interrogation. And in that instant, she clenched her fist around her pistol, a determined look on her face.

"No turning back now," she thought to herself as she started walking over towards the still intact gate built into the front concrete wall. After all, she had a feeling that anyone watching the cameras at this point would most likely be focusing on the gaping hole instead. "For my own sake," she thought to herself as she stopped at the door and prepared to access the retinal scanner so as to get the gate to open for her, "that of my family, and that of anyone else I could help that just happens to currently be in this building right now, I'm going in."

. . . . .

Beast Boy, now in lion form, crouched low towards the floor before then pouncing at his uncle, roaring in rage. Galtry, in tiger form, similarly lunged and roared at his nephew. The two big cats collided in midair, and started furiously wrestling, batting at each other with their paws, slicing each other with their claws, and biting each other's shoulders, and necks with their teeth. Eventually, Beast Boy managed to brush Galtry off of him and send him sprawling away, at which point he then turned into a gorilla, stood straight up on both feet, and slapped his palms across his chest before screeching in rage at his downed uncle. Galtry, snarling angrily at this development, turned into a grizzly bear, reared up on his own hind legs, and roared in fury at his nephew before he and Beast Boy both charged at each other once more.

When the olive-green ape and scarlet-red bear subsequently collided against each other over the course of this charge, they both started rapidly batting away at each other, with Beast Boy's fists pounding furiously into his uncle's face, neck, chest, and belly while Galtry's own front paws slammed painfully against his nephew's own face, shoulders, chest, and stomach. As it soon turned out, the sharp claws on the already strong front paws of Galtry's grizzly bear form ended up providing him with a slight edge, and so Beast Boy eventually turned into a rhino and abruptly charged at his uncle, who barely even had time to register the fact before he was first run over, and then slammed in the backside and sent flying like a pinata by a swing of his nephew's horn.

Galtry got back on his feet, still in grizzly bear form, and turned around to roar, only to pause and widen his eyes in surprise, mid-roar, at the sight of his nephew, still in rhino form, barreling straight towards him. Desperate to avoid getting pounded or gored, the red shapeshifter turned into an elephant and started charging towards his already charging nephew, lifting his trunk and trumpeting furiously in the process.

Beast Boy turned into a mouse right as he and his uncle were seconds away from crashing together, and the speed at which he'd been running before this transformation caused him to go flying through the air in time to land on his uncle's trunk, which he started using as a ramp to run across towards Galtry's head. But Galtry was smart enough to know what his nephew likely had in mind, and he turned into a reticulated python, sending both himself and his nephew falling to the floor. Galtry landed first, and promptly sent his head flying towards the still falling green mouse, jaws open and ready to swallow it. But Beast Boy was quick to realize what was going on, and he turned into a crocodile. As a result, the red python's fanged mouth chomped harmlessly against the side of the green crocodile's scaly body, and the crocodile itself landed with an immensely strong thud upon the center of the python's body.

Galtry reared his head and neck up, hissing in pain with his eyes closed, jaws agape, and forked tongue sticking in the air. But then he felt his nephew get off his body and heard him snarl, and he looked in his nephew's direction in time to see the olive-green crocodilian open its jaws and position itself as if about to try to snap them across the middle of his body! In a flash, he turned into a wolf and lunged out of the way in time to avoid getting bitten in half. No sooner had he thus escaped this fate when he turned to face Beast Boy, snarling and slavering with rage. His nephew raised his own head, eyes narrowed as an equally angry hollow snarling emanated from his own scaly jaws.

Realizing that Beast Boy would now likely still have the advantage in an extended fight between them in their current forms, Galtry turned into a hippo and bellowed at his nephew. Beast Boy snarled, turned into a polar bear, and roared at his uncle. The two charged each other once more, only for Beast Boy to suddenly realize that he'd potentially miscalculated as a result of finding himself using his polar bear form's front paws to hold his uncle's hippo form's jaws open as Galtry tried to snap them shut upon him. Deciding that discretion would be the better part of valor in this situation, he hurriedly shifted into a bald eagle and flew away just in time to avoid getting crushed between his uncle's jaws, shrieking as he flew down a nearby corridor. Galtry bellowed, half in rage and half in smug triumph, and turned into a vulture before taking to the air himself and flying after his nephew.

The resulting chase soon led to them entering a room that appeared for some reason to be containing a large number of massive, reinforced glass tanks filled with water. Beast Boy gave these a passing glance as he flew over them, but the superior sense of smell Galtry now had in his vulture form soon proved a major advantage, as it allowed him to immediately take notice of the fact that the water in the tanks just so happened to be salt water. And as a result, he soon found himself with an especially dastardly sounding idea.

In a flash, Galtry turned his back on his nephew mid-flight, turning into a great white shark in the process. The mighty tail Galtry gained in the process of this new transformation slammed hard against his nephew's side, sending the green eagle rocketing aside with a surprised shriek before it then landed into one of the tanks with a splash. Eager to avoid losing his new chance at successfully getting the drop on his nephew and killing him, Galtry jumped from the tank he'd landed in and making his way through each of the tanks to reach the one Beast Boy had landed in.

After what felt like an eternity of flailing in the water of the tank he'd landed in while still in his bald eagle form, Beast Boy managed to notice an ominously large shape moving towards him, and he looked in the object's direction in time for his eyes to widen at the sight of the blood red great white shark his uncle had turned into barreling straight towards him with its jaws open. With seconds to spare, he turned into a bottlenose dolphin and did a backflip, his tail flippers smacking right against his uncle's 'chin' and sending the shark staggering backwards and in circles just in time for the green dolphin to then send itself rocketing headfirst against his uncle's side, the tip of his nose ramming extra painfully against the gills on that area.

Galtry winced in discomfort as he was rapidly pushed ahead by his nephew's ramming, and then promptly winced in pain when he ended up getting slammed against the side of the tank he and Beast Boy were in. Desperate to regain his advantage, he turned into a giant pacific octopus, hurriedly starting to wrap his tentacles around the green dolphin; only for said dolphin to abruptly transform into an electric eel. The resulting electrical shock was enough to stun him long enough to let go of his nephew and briefly sink from the daze he ended up under.

His uncle once again out of commission for the moment, Beast Boy swam up to the water's surface away from the sinking red octopus his uncle was still in the shape of and jumped out, shifting into a pteranodon in mid-jump. With a half triumphant and half determined shriek, he started flying towards the still gaping open doorway to the room he and the tanks were in, eager to get away from his uncle and return to the vault containing the all-important cure. Especially since he could now feel the burning presence in his mind indicating the virus becoming considerably stronger than before.

Unfortunately, as he soon found out the hard way, his uncle was still far from finished. For right as he was seconds away from reaching the doorway and entering the corridor outside the tank room, he heard a hollow snarling and felt the wind displacement of a heavy creature from behind him, and he turned his head in time to shriek in surprise and fear at the sight of a massive blood red liopleurodon lunging through the air towards him, its jaws open, ready to devour him!

. . . . .

"Damn and blast," Constance Morales hissed as she rapidly threw knife after knife at her once again air born Tamaranean opponent, becoming angrier and angrier as said Tamaranean continuously blasted each and every knife either out of the air or straight to ash and dust with her star bolts. "Don't you ever run out of fuel?!"

"It appears you are making a mistake on my identity," Starfire said blankly as she blasted yet another round of knives from Morales into ash. "But I am not what you would call a car."

Morales snarled in rage and clenched her left fist while reaching for another round of knives, only for her eyes to widen and a loud gulp to leave her throat when she realized that she now had only five knives in total left on her. She mentally cursed. She'd gotten careless and was now at risk of running out of knives. She let go of the five knives she had left, leaving them in her pocket as she proceeded to instead draw her voltage whip back out. "Best save my knives," she thought to herself, both angry and grudgingly respectful towards the Tamaranean for turning out to be such an apparently good opponent. "Something tells me that this whip will be my only logically good choice of weapon against this girl from here on out."

Starfire immediately went on guard, preparing herself to unleash a blast at the sight of the voltage whip coming back out into play. Sure enough, immediately after reactivating it, the Latina started twirling it through the air in circles like a lasso. "Well if you're not going to make it easier for me by naturally running out of power, then clearly its high time I _really_ stop holding back. Get ready E.T! Because as of now, the gloves are off!"

Immediately after yelling this, Morales lashed the whip towards Starfire, who hurriedly blasted it back with a star bolt. Undeterred, Morales continued lashing the voltage whip at Starfire again and again in rapid fashion, the Tamaranean likewise blasting it back again and again in equally swift fashion with her star bolts. As this rapid-fire duel continued to unfold, the two combatants found themselves slowly moving down the corridor towards a large chamber with a gaping open doorway. Eventually, Starfire ended up managing to float right through the doorway and into the chamber, at which point Constance suddenly lowered her whip and pressed a button on a wall device nearby the open doorway. Seconds later, a thick metal door lowered into place, sealing the chamber shut with Starfire inside!

Desperate to ensure that her current plan worked, Morales hurriedly pressed a button and turned a dial on the trigger device to its maximum capacity. The sound of hissing gas rapidly entering the chamber she'd now trapped Starfire in caused her to allow a wolfish grin to come onto her face. "Perfect," she thought to herself. "With enough gas now being pumped into that chamber to kill a dinosaur, that Area 51 reject is as good as…"

A sudden explosion interrupted the scientist as the door to the apparent gas chamber was abruptly blown off its hinges and sent rocketing at her, a burst of fire and smoke erupting out of the chamber from behind the dislodged door at the same time. The door plowed into Morales and sent her flying backwards. She landed on her back on the floor, the door sandwiching her against the floor and shielding her from the wave of fire that passed over her as a result of the explosion. Even after the gigantic wave of fire finally dissipated, she could still hear the seemingly distant sound of further explosions occurring within the building. She lifted the dislodged door and got back on her feet in time to see a now very angry looking Starfire floating towards her, eyes glowing solid green and a gigantic star bolt each encasing her fists.

"A very dirty trick," she said as she floated ominously closer and closer towards her Latina scientist opponent. "If it weren't for my natural Tamaranean capabilities, plus my ability to breath in a very different fashion compared to the people of Earth, I'd almost certainly be dead now." She pointed her star bolt encased fists towards the now very unnerved looking scientist, an unnerving glare on her face. "Shall we continue this duel?"

. . . . .

The sound of explosions seemingly coming from inside the walls of the building caused Robin and Dr. Lagrange to pause in their sword fight. "It would appear someone tried to use the gas chamber, only for someone to end up igniting the gas while it was still being released into the chamber," said Lagrange.

Robin had no time to respond before one explosion coming from within a seeming exhaust pipe directly above them caused the pipe to split in half, with the separated ends of both halves coming falling straight down towards the catwalk the two warriors were standing on. Eyes widened, the two combatants jumped backwards in time to avoid getting crushed by the pipe ends, only for the catwalk they were on to end up dislodged from its position and sent falling towards the floor.

Quick as a whip, Robin drew out his grappling gun, fired it at another catwalk a couple feet away and swung himself to safety, miraculously managing to avoid dropping his sword in the process. He had just straightened back up to his feet and turned around to face the area he'd been when he saw Lagrange, who had landed back on top of the falling catwalk was now running up it while it was in the midst of taking a diagonal position in mid-fall. And when the scientist reached the topmost end of the now diagonally positioned falling catwalk, he jumped off, lunging straight towards the same catwalk Robin was on, managing, miraculously without losing his grip on his sword, to grab onto the rail and climb aboard to join the boy wonder.

Having gotten himself to safety, Lagrange turned to face Robin, his serrated saber at the ready once more and a determined silent snarl on his face. The boy wonder nodded his head, a grudging look of respect on his masked face. "Not bad," he said. He extended his sword in the scientist's direction. "Shall we resume?"

Lagrange growled. "Gladly," he responded as he spun his sword in circles through the air before then abruptly charging at the teen caped crusader. But Robin had been expecting exactly that, and he was able to easily block the attempted blow to his head that followed.

. . . . .

Cyborg and Dr. Azimi continued their own duel in the technicians' station, seemingly oblivious to the muffled sound of the chain reaction Starfire had caused as they rammed their respective fists together in a vicious punching match.

"Fall," Azimi snarled as one of his titanium knuckle encased fists once again rammed into one of Cyborg's own metallic fists. "Damn you, fall!"

Cyborg, wincing slightly as his left fist once again crumpled somewhat from the impact of the titanium knuckle, only continued to duke it out. "Yo! Hate to break it to you man," Cyborg snarled. "But it's gonna take a lot more than you whining at me and throwing a bunch of punches at me to take me down."

The muffled explosions reached the interior of the roof above them, and several patches of ceiling fell down around them. The two strong fighters directed cursory glances at the destruction going on around and above them. "It appears we'll perhaps need to bring down the house to end this fight," Azimi whispered under his breath.

Cyborg managed to overhear this. "Read my mind." He activated his sonic cannon, Azimi already drawing his camera cannon back out and charging it up at the same time. "Let's get this over with."

"Agreed."

The two fired their respective blasts, the blue laser from Cyborg's sonic cannon and the red one from Dr. Azimi's camera cannon pushing against each other as they dueled for dominance.

. . . . .

Ambush and Jungle Cat rushed hurriedly through multiple corridors, desperately working to stay ahead of their four brainwashed fellow mutants as they worked to hopefully avoid attacking them long enough to come up with a proper plan of attack against them that would hopefully not result in any deaths or overly severe injuries.

Naturally, their four brainwashed friends were not making this easy. Swamp Gator was even now crawling rapidly across the ceiling while spewing out bursts of his acid breath attack their way whenever he could. Night Howler had taken the form of what appeared to be a wolf themed version of _My Hero Academia's_ dark shadow and was soaring through the air close behind the two feline mutants, shadowy jaws gaping open and at the ready to snap upon them as it reached its clawed shadowy hands towards them. Rhinestone was stubbornly bulling his way down the corridors with his arms converted into 'mace mode' and his horns seemingly spinning like drills, the ground seeming to shake with each of his footsteps. And of course, Grizzly Girl was running closely alongside her boyfriend, roaring in rage as she sent both her fingernail branches and various summoned tree roots after the two feline mutants in a desperate attempt at tripping, restraining, or impaling them.

Eventually, Swamp Gator got smart enough to switch tactics. More specifically, he stopped aiming at the floor where the two feline mutants were running and instead spray his acid breath at the ceiling area a couple yards ahead of them, moving his head so that the acid cut a complete circle, causing a massive portion of the ceiling to collapse right towards where Jungle Cat and Ambush were about to go running through. The two feline mutants skidded to a halt inches away from where the ceiling portion ended up landing, hissing in surprise as they just barely stopped themselves in time.

Rhinestone eagerly pressed the moment of advantage, rushing forward with his drilling claws at the ready to gore the two feline mutants. But Ambush was quick to react, grabbing Jungle Cat by the hand and jumping into the air seconds before Rhinestone could successfully gore her, dragging her leonine boyfriend into the air with her. And as the rhino mutant zoomed through the now empty space where the two feline mutants had been standing, Ambush landed upon his back, using this positioning as a means to both propel herself and Jungle Cat away from him while also sending him sliding further forward off balance. Rhinestone had just enough time to bellow in surprise as he skidded along before eventually coming to a painful stop via a crash-landing flat on his face against the floor.

Grizzly girl roared in rage at the sight of this, causing her fingers on both hands to extend into long sharp branches. Jungle Cat and Ambush hurriedly ducked in time to avoid getting speared, the branches harmlessly extending above them. Then they were forced to grab the still extending branches and swing themselves upward in time to avoid ending up on the receiving end of a vicious lunging attack initiated by the still literally shadowy Night Howler. The living shadow reared up from its failed lunge, baring its shadowy claws and teeth and its purple eyes agleam with savagery. Jungle Cat, hurriedly taking advantage of this momentary lull between Night Howler's attacks, let out a burst of his roar at the ceiling above the shadowy wolf hybrid. While the resulting cave in of ceiling material was easily brushed aside by the shadow, the sudden burst of sunlight directly upon it was enough to cause it to howl in pain before dissipating back into Night Howler's solid natural form.

The sound of an angry reptilian snarling from Swamp Gator was enough to warn the two feline mutants that the crocodile mutant had not taken kindly to what had just happened to Night Howler, at which point Ambush hurriedly grabbed the downed Night Howler and held her in place directly in front of her and Jungle Cat. This caused Swamp Gator to growl in further rage due to this move now leaving him unable to spray his acid breath at them without risking melting down his girlfriend at the same time.

But this moment of advantage didn't last long, as Grizzly Girl grabbed Jungle Cat and Ambush by the necks with her branch fingers and yanked them backwards, causing them to let go of Night Howler in the process. The lupine mutant melted into shadowy energy to teleport to safety as the two feline mutants were crashed together upon their heads and dropped painfully to the corridor floor.

Jungle Cat had enough time to open his eyes afterward to see Grizzly Girl abruptly step to the side of the corridor before he then heard Rhinestone snorting smugly. Red eyes widening, Jungle Cat looked behind him in time to see the indeed smugly smirking Rhinestone jump into the air, his right fist raised and seemingly glowing. In that instant, Jungle Cat hurriedly grabbed the still dazed Ambush and rolled the both of them aside just in time to avoid getting gored by the line of immensely sharp crystalline stalagmites that abruptly erupted down the center of the corridor as a result of the almost earth-shaking three-point landing that Rhinestone subsequently engaged in.

The sight of the line of crystal spikes erupting from the floor area in front of her and Jungle Cat was enough to shock Ambush back to full awareness. "I'm awake," she shrieked, caught quite off guard by just how narrowly she'd avoided getting impaled thanks to Jungle Cat. The sound of a reptilian roaring coming from above her to the left caused her to look that way in time to see Swamp Gator hurtling towards her from where he'd initially been positioned upon the ceiling, jaws open and ready to snap at her.

Acting on reflex, Ambush grabbed the edges of Swamp Gator's jaws before he could snap them closed, swung him around, and sent him rocketing backward. By sheer luck on Ambush's part, Night Howler had just happened to materialize out of the shadows and into view right in the area Swamp Gator had been sent flying towards. As a result, the lupine mutant was sent flying as well and knocked on her back when her crocodilian mutant boyfriend slammed into her.

Meanwhile, Grizzly Girl roared and sent the branch fingers on her right hand rapidly extending towards Jungle Cat. The leonine mutant ducked just in time for the sharp ended 'branches' to slam into the crystalline chest of the once again charging Rhinestone, sending him flying backward as well. Eyes widened in surprise at accidentally banging her branch fingers against her own boyfriend, Grizzly Girl retracted the guilty branches, a concerned look on her face as she did so. "Winston?" She asked, clearly sounding concerned despite the fact that her boyfriend's currently being in crystal mode had successfully prevented him from getting accidentally stabbed to death the way she'd been intending for Jungle Cat. But then Jungle Cat straightened back up and let out a burst of his ultrasonic roar, sending her flying backwards in the opposite direction.

With all their attackers now momentarily out of commission, Jungle Cat and Ambush hurried over to a nearby side corridor that they'd noticed. And once they'd entered this corridor, it soon became obvious just how lucky they'd been in their timing when they heard what sounded like shadowy energy materializing into shape en masse behind them, followed by the sound of a large number of running feet behind them alongside mass wolf-like snarling. It was now clear that Night Howler had summoned another round of shadow energy clones of herself to go chasing after the two feline mutants.

"Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving," Jungle Cat growled, desperate to keep himself and Ambush ahead of the pack of shadow clones Night Howler had summoned and sent after them.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Ambush panted, trying as desperately as she could to continue mustering up the energy to keep running after the latest round of attacks.

Ambush and Jungle Cat had just enough time to reach another 'junction point' before they found all paths they could take blocked by squadrons of Night Howler shadow clones. The two feline mutants barely skidded to a stop in time to avoid colliding with any of the clones, which all tensed up into combat position and snarled, with a few of them even seeming to lick their chops.

Jungle Cat gritted his teeth and Ambush clenched her fists. "This isn't looking good," the latter snarled.

"You're telling me," Jungle Cat hissed.

At the sound of a chuckling coming from in front of them, as well as the distinctive noise made by the summoning of a shadowy portal, the two feline mutants looked ahead in time to see a large shadowy vortex materialize in front of them, the original Night Howler stepping out alongside Swamp Gator, Rhinestone, and Grizzly Girl. Night Howler smiled, her fang-like teeth making it look especially ominous alongside her solid glowing white eyes. "You've put up a good fight," she said. "I'll admit to that. But face it, you've lost."

"That's awfully presumptuous of you," Ambush growled, fists still clenched as her fangs gritted into a snarl. "Considering my boyfriend and I are currently still standing and able to fight."

"True enough," Night Howler admitted. "For now."

"Indeed," Swamp Gator hissed, a smug smirk on his own scaly face. "For sooner or later, you both will run out of energy and lose your ability to fight. And from there, the four of us will take you down as easily as brushing off a mosquito."

"Correct you are bud," Rhinestone stated, ramming his fists together with a confident grin on his horned crystalline face. "Master made it clear that these two were to be either killed or converted. But since they were to only be converted in the event that they surrender, then it is clear they must be killed. For what the master wants, the master gets."

"Got that right," said Grizzly Girl, a low chuckle escaping her jaws as she allowed Jungle Cat and Ambush to get a good look at the clawed fingernails on her left hand, which she was already raring and ready to extend into long sharp branches.

Jungle Cat growled. "Easy to say when you've got a bunch of duplicates around to fight us while you kickback and be lazy."

Night Howler only laughed. "It's not my fault you don't have the endurance to take them all out." She smirked. "After all, it certainly goes to show just how much you should fear my power."

"Is that so?" Jungle Cat snarled.

"Oh but of course. For you see, I have control over darkness. And fear of darkness is one of the most primal and ancient of fears that mankind have had since their earliest days of existence. And that is quite understandable, for even with the stars and moon present, night is always when darkness rules after the sun sets. And before light first came into existence, let alone before mankind or any other living thing came into existence, there was only darkness."

"Well if darkness is so powerful, then how come you don't allow yourself to use it to its full potential?"

At the sound of this, Ambush looked at her boyfriend as if he'd grown a second head, Night Howler glared at Jungle Cat, and the three other brainwashed mutants raised their eyebrows in confusion. "And what, may I ask, would make you say such a claim?" Night Howler snarled, clearly angry.

"Well think about it," said Jungle Cat. "What have you done with your power so far? Clone yourself? Fire a bunch of explosive orbs? Turn into a living shadow monster? Summon restraints?"

"I'd hardly call that something to sneeze at," Swamp Gator snarled.

Despite the situation, Ambush couldn't help but smile at this comment. "Even when brainwashed he's quick to defend her," she thought to herself.

"True," Jungle Cat admitted. "But think about it Claire, really think about it! If darkness is truly as powerful as it is, then why is it that you're the one amongst the four of you that has kept getting taken out of commission the most easily? I mean seriously! That shadowy monster you can turn into? Useless in combat as long as your opponent has a conveniently available means of introducing a brand-new sudden mass source of light!"

Night Howler narrowed her eyes. "Why you…"

"Those clones surrounding us right now?" Jungle Cat continued, a cat-like smirk of pride on his face. "Easily dispatched and turned to smoke by the slightest strong impact against them! Heck, I'm sure I could dispatch all of these with a single roar!"

"I'll just summon more!"

"Go right ahead! I'll just blast any reinforcements into smoke as well! And in the subsequent match of endurance that ensues, you'll run yourself into the ground plum tuckered out long before I even come close to losing my voice! And that's a fact!"

"You take that back you beast," Swamp Gator snarled, stomping his left foot forward and baring his teeth into a feral snarling while swinging his tail side to side in threatening fashion and coating his hands in acid.

"And you of all people should know how correct I am Owen," Jungle Cat continued, pointing his clawed finger at the crocodile mutant. "After all, you've been twice used unwittingly as a makeshift projectile that's all too easily rendered her temporarily out of commission over the course of this battle! Heck, you've even been used as a projectile to successfully dispatch three of her clones!"

Rhinestone and Grizzly Girl both winced upon hearing this, directing a mutual meaningful look towards the now very embarrassed looking crocodile mutant. "You're gonna need some ice for that burn," said Grizzly Girl.

"I hate to admit it," said Rhinestone. "But the beast does have a point there."

Swamp Gator hung his head, and Night Howler turned her now furious gaze on the rhino and bear mutants. "HOW DARE YOU!?" She howled. "WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?!"

"Face it Claire," said Jungle Cat. "Even before we got mutated and had those additional powers inside us activated, you were always the physically weakest of us. And even with your new powers, you still haven't yet proven yourself to be any stronger than you were before! And even crazier, you yourself still believe as much!"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE," Night Howler screamed, now even angrier than before as she turned her head to face Jungle Cat once more.

"Oh really?" Jungle Cat purred, now on a role while privately pleased that his current on the fly plan so far appeared to be working. "Then why have you been the easiest to temporarily put out of commission over the course of this battle? And better yet, why have you not even tried to adequately use your power to its full potential despite how powerful you claim to be?"

Night Howler clenched her fists, solid white eyes crackling with rage and her teeth gritted into a feral drooling snarl. Her three fellow brainwashed mutants could only stand awkwardly, uncertain as to what to think or do at that particular moment.

"Just think about it Claire! Really think about it," said Jungle Cat, making sure to _really_ let his point come across to the lupine mutant. "If you're so powerful, then why have you limited yourself to only tossing orbs of darkness when you could just as easily send entire streams worth of shadowy flames at us? Why do you keep summoning clones to do work that you could easily take care of yourself? Why do you limit your shadow monster form to such a comparatively weak form instead of really cutting loose with it?"

"Kit Cat," Ambush hissed, sounding half irritated and half frightened. "What are you doing?"

"Why do you only use your portals and teleportation for the sake of retreats when they could make perfectly capable active weapons in combat? Why do you only use your shadowy lightning as an intimidation technique? And why do you not go the extra mile with your shadow restraints by using them like whips or tetherball strings?"

Night Howler snarled again, shadowy lightning tendrils forming around her fists.

"You can get as angry about it as you want," Jungle Cat said, keeping his finger pointed at Night Howler in the process. "But the simple truth is, as powerful as you may now claim to be, you're still the least threatening out of all six of us! There's so much you could do with your powers, yet you're still exactly as weak as you were before you even had them precisely because you limit yourself to the easy stuff and refuse to even consider all the techniques that could allow you to actually be strong! Seriously Claire, there are so many amazing things you could do with your powers, and you don't even bother to try! Talk about pathetic! Hell, if you're truly as powerful as you claim to be, I'm sure you could cast this entire corridor we're currently positioned at into a darkness so thick that it would take an especially powerful bright light to dispel it!"

As he said this last sentence, he directed a meaningful glance towards Ambush out of the corner of his eye. The tigress mutant briefly narrowed her eyes in confusion, but then they widened as she then figured out just what her boyfriend wanted her to do. She surreptitiously nodded her head, thankfully managing to avoid getting seen doing so by the now quite literally shaking with rage Night Howler and half dumbfounded and half angry Swamp Gator, Rhinestone, and Grizzly Girl.

Swamp Gator turned his head to face Night Howler. "Do not listen to that arrogant little fur brain," he hissed to his girlfriend in encouragement. "Unlike him, I actually _have_ seen what you can do, and I know you are stronger than he dares to insinuate."

"Yeah," Rhinestone stated, a smug look now coming on his face. "Why don't you go ahead and humor this little menace? Make him eat his words?"

"Agreed," Grizzly Girl cooed, intertwining her branch-like fingers together menacingly with a wide grin on her face. "Put the little beast in his place."

Night Howler thought to herself, all while the other mutants in the area watched her intently. Then she nodded. "You know what? I think I will." She snapped her fingers, causing all the clones she'd had present in the area burst into shadowy mist and start forming a transparent swirling tornado-shaped vortex of energy around her. "You want me to show you how powerful I am thanks to my control of the dark?" Night Howler snarled, an arrogant wolf-like grin on her face as she clearly prepared to unleash what appeared to very likely be a quite powerful technique. "I'll go ahead and do exactly that!"

Immediately after she said this, she snapped her hands and arms forward, causing what looked like shadowy flames to engulf her hands before the transparent shadowy mist that had been surrounding her started to rapidly expand across the area and become gradually less and less transparent. As this happened, she and her three fellow brainwashed mutants had very smug and toothy grins on their faces, Ambush looked fairly nervous, and even Jungle Cat himself looked as if this current development was giving him a decent amount of pause.

"Ok," the lion mutant managed to say as he looked around at the now very dark area around him. "I'll admit, this is starting to look pretty scary."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Night Howler nodded, her prideful grin now looking even more so. "Because now I'll make it even scarier!" With a swish of her hands, she caused the aura of darkness around herself and the rest of the mutants to start becoming even thicker. "And scarier!" She caused the darkness to become even thicker. "And scarier!" The darkness continued to become thicker and more all-consuming, all while Night Howler giggled at how she was at last proving herself a credible threat in the eyes of the two mutants who weren't under a thrall. But she was completely blind to how her three compatriots were now starting to look very worried at just _how_ dark the area around them was starting to become thanks to the lupine mutant's efforts at disproving Jungle Cat's earlier remarks. And the fact that they'd managed to already lose sight of Ambush and later managed to catch just the slightest glimpse of Jungle Cat suddenly letting a wide Cheshire Cat style grin come on his face before he too seemed to vanish into the increasingly thick darkness only made them feel even more wary. And before long, they started to find themselves on the verge of being unable to even see themselves, at which point their eyes widened in horror as they finally realized that they'd been played.

"Claire," Grizzly Girl whimpered, a nervous look on her face as she tentatively extended her right hand towards the still giggling wolf mutant's left shoulder. "That's enough! Please stop!"

"Claire stop!" Swamp Gator yelled, now looking and sounding immensely panicked at realizing just what was now likely at risk of happening. "That's too much! Too much!"

"It's a trap!" Rhinestone bellowed, for once sounding frightened. "Claire, turn it down! Turn it down! Before we…"

"Huh?" Night Howler asked, briefly turning her head in confusion to look behind her before her own eyes widened in horror at just how much she was now at risk of putting herself and her friends at just as much of a disadvantage as their opponents. "Oh fu…"

The darkness expanded to the point of engulfing all four of the brainwashed mutants, Night Howler's belated shutting off of the relentless expansion doing little to help as she and her compatriots all screamed in horror upon being engulfed and finding themselves completely blind in the all-consuming blackness of the shadowy energy around them.

"Dagnabbit!" Swamp Gator hissed, half angry and half frightened. "I should have seen this coming!" He hissed again, his voice sounding like a mixture between a sob and a snarl. "Now I can't see anything!"

"Neither can I!" Rhinestone bellowed, sounding more panicked than angry.

"Claire!" Grizzly Girl whimpered, openly weeping from sheer terror as she blindly felt her way through complete thin air with her hands. "Owen! Winston! Where are you?!"

"I need light!" Night Howler howled. "AGH! I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST SAID THAT!"

"Wish granted."

The four brainwashed mutants had just enough time to widen their eyes in horror at the sound of Ambush's voice in the area coming from _very_ close in front of them before a bright shroud of brilliant white light suddenly materialized in front of them, managing to briefly let them have a clear view of the otherwise completely invisible tigress mutant's silhouette before said shroud equally abruptly expanded into an even more gobsmackingly vast burst of light, managing to become seemingly even _brighter_ in the process. Within seconds, all the darkness that Night Howler had summoned into the area was dispelled, and the four brainwashed mutants were sent staggering backwards, teeth gritted, eyes closed or similarly covered, and all of them hissing and wheezing in what appeared to be intense pain and discomfort from the impossibly bright light.

"Gah!" Night Howler screamed, her hands clenched tightly upon her head as black mist seemed to emit from her fur and body; almost as if the light were physically causing her pain. "It burns! It burns!"

"Argh! Now it's too bright!" Grizzly Girl growled as she continued blindly waving her hands through the air, but now with her eyes closed.

"Still can't see!" Rhinestone snorted, keeping his crystalline hands clapped over his already closed eyes in a desperate attempt to keep himself shielded from the painfully bright light.

"Make it stop! Make it stop!" Swamp Gator snarled, swinging his head left and right as he kept his eyes closed and hands positioned on his head very similarly to how Night Howler's own hands were positioned.

"NO!" Night Howler howled, now feeling even more pain and agony from the continued exposure to the mercilessly bright light, the mist steaming off of her body now starting to spew into being more rapidly and look more like smoke. She shook her head side to side violently and desperately tried to walk backwards to escape. "PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP! IT HURTS! PLEASE SOMEBODY HHHHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPPP!"

"ROAR!"

At the same moment this roaring sound was heard, a gigantic tidal wave of noise waves utterly _slammed_ into the four dazed and blinded mutants, all four of them having just enough time to reflexively open their eyes before they all went rocketing backwards, clear out of the massive expanse of light, and coming to a painfully crashing halt against a wall at the very end of the corridor.

For what felt like an eternity, the four mutants remained pinned by sheer impact inertia against the wall, grumbling and groaning from the pain. Then Swamp Gator, Rhinestone, and Grizzly Girl all gurgled, their eyes rolling to the backs of their heads, and then they fell from the wall and flat on their faces on the floor, completely out cold. Night Howler, however, remained up against the wall for a good while afterward, sniffling and whimpering with her eyes closed as small tears started to streak down her furry cheeks, still feeling the pain of both her impact as well as the agonizing burning sensation she'd been feeling while so mercilessly exposed to the full force of Ambush's impossibly bright burst of supernaturally powered light.

She was still positioned there and weeping through her closed eyes when said burst of light, at least 10 yards ahead of her, finally faded away and Ambush and Jungle Cat came walking up to her and the three unconscious other brainwashed mutants, wide eyed looks of surprise on their faces at the sight of her in her current state. Stunned and confused, Jungle Cat and Ambush came to a stop an arm's length away from the wolf mutant. Said mutant continued to quiver and whimper, her eyes remaining shut and keeping her blind from her earlier duo of opponents' presence in front of her.

Jungle Cat raised his eyebrow in confusion. "What on Earth?"

Ambush, however, noticed a couple details that her boyfriend didn't, and these details were enough to make her feel incredibly worried. The details in question were that Night Howler's already jet-black fur now looked considerably less soft and bristlier as if it had been severely burned and her cloths showed signs of slight ash formed upon them.

Heart in her mouth, Ambush tentatively started to extend her right finger towards Night Howler's right arm. "My power," she thought to herself. "Did I…?"

The tip of Ambush's finger very lightly touched Night Howler's right arm…

…and the wolf mutant HOWLED in agony.

"GAH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!"

Ambush snapped her finger away, stumbling backward a few steps in wide eyed shock before falling down on her butt. Jungle Cat also briefly reared back in surprise at this development. But then Night Howler lowered her head, eyes still closed and leaking tears as the wolf mutant whimpered and sobbed, at which point the two feline mutants continued gaping at her, a concerned look on Jungle Cat's face and a half horrified and half despairing look on Ambush's.

"So…bright…," Night Howler whimpered, trembling and spasming with pain and fear. "Too bright…hurting…burning…please…make it stop…make it stop…I… …I don't…don't wanna…don't wanna die…" She groaned, slid off the wall to the point of being on her knees, and then face planted onto the floor.

Jungle Cat crouched onto his hands and knees, checking all four of the unconscious mutants for pulses. He sighed in relief when it turned out all four of them were indeed still alive. Even Night Howler still had a pulse, although hers was just the slightest bit slower than those of her three compatriots. "They're alive," he managed to say, directing a half relieved and half exhausted look on his face. "They're…alive…"

At this point, Ambush completely lost it, crumpling onto her knees before she then lifted up Night Howler's upper body, wrapped her arms around the unconscious and barely alive wolf mutant's abdomen, and laid her head on the lupine mutant's shoulder before she then started sobbing and weeping from a mixture of guilt over having very nearly killed her friend and frustration and despair at the circumstances that had forced her and Jungle Cat to so brutally fight against and very nearly kill their friends that they'd so desperately wanted to save.

Jungle Cat, meanwhile, remained on his own knees not too far away, hanging his head, sighing, and letting a single manly tear escape his right eye as he realized just what he'd done. He had not at all expected Ambush's newly discovered light burst attack to have such a devastating effect on their brainwashed friends, let alone be at risk of killing Night Howler. And now, as a direct result of this lack of knowledge and the borderline bullying form of tactics he'd used to trick Night Howler into leaving herself and her three fellow brainwashed mutants in ideal circumstances for maximum effect from Ambush's light burst had now left their four friends barely alive and his girlfriend sobbing her eyes out and apologizing to the unconscious Night Howler repeatedly. And as if to make matters worse, assuming that Dr. Morales had been telling the truth when she'd left them to deal with the four brainwashed mutants, they had no way of removing the collars forcing their friends to fight them.

"There's got to be a way to help them," Ambush whimpered, her voice just barely able to be understandable in her current sadness as she kept her head on Night Howler's shoulder and continued to cry. "There's…there's got to…" She burst into tears again.

Jungle Cat placed his hand comfortingly on his weeping girlfriend's shoulder, a look of guilt still on his own furry face as he rubbed his other hand through his mane. "We'll find a way," he said weakly in an effort to reassure Ambush and cheer her up. "We'll find a way…"

"Look no further."

Ambush and Jungle Cat tensed up, eyes widened at the sound of this unexpected, yet familiar, voice behind them. They turned their heads to look behind them. Sure enough, standing nearby with a determined look on her face was none other than Dr. Rookwood. The blonde scientist amongst Arronax's inner circle nodded her head. "There was something about Professor Chang's benefactor that I remembered that your shapeshifter friend would potentially have wanted to know right as the tribe princess finished restraining and gagging me after you guys left to go on the raid. I managed to find that spear tip you guys left for me and escape in time to drop by. But while I'm certain that the shapeshifter's probably already learned that information the hard way, I figured I might as well still see if I can do something to help. And clearly, it's an extra good thing I chose to come over judging by what that project I mentioned this morning that was transferred to here from the sister location has now turned out to be."

Jungle Cat looked to Ambush, who sniffled, gently lowered Night Howler back down to the floor, and crawled over towards the blonde Wildebeest Society scientist, a half hopeful and half still in tears look on her face. She reached the scientist, at which point she rose up onto her knees and clasped her hands together as if begging. "Can you really help them?" Ambush whimpered, her voice barely remaining even as she asked this question.

Jungle Cat looked intently at Dr. Rookwood, the beginnings of hope starting to flare up inside him at the thought of the kindly scientist perhaps indeed being able to help them get their friends free of Dr. Morales's mind control collars, and maybe even subsequently healed and back on their feet in time to help if they were lucky.

Sure enough, the scientist nodded. "The last thing I remember being mentioned within my earshot about this 'additional security measure' while I was still out of the loop on its exact nature was that it could only be shut down by either the boss's magic or the fingerprints of his four inner circle members. And last time I checked, I'm still technically one of those four."

"Then please," Ambush hissed, eyes on the verge of bursting into tears once again. "Please help them. I don't want to hurt them anymore! I don't want to hurt them anymore! I. Don't. Want. To. Hurt. Them. Any…" She completely broke down, wrapping her arms around Dr. Rookwood's legs, laying her head against the scientist's waist, and sobbing her eyes once more, half in melancholy over what she'd done not too long ago and half in relief that there was now finally a way to truly save their lost friends.

The scientist placed her hands comfortingly on both of the weeping blonde tigress mutant's shoulders, nodding her head with a look of motherly warmth on her face. "Have no fear child," she said. "I'll help you take care of them. I give you my word." She looked to Jungle Cat, gesturing with her finger towards the four still unconscious brainwashed 'Project Menagerie' subjects. "Bring them over," she said, a firm, but kind, tone to her voice. "I've allowed enough kids to suffer because of me. And right now, it's really high time I help allow the suffering to end for as many of those kids as possible that I can still save."

. . . . .

Back in the arena in the building's basement, the tribe's royal family were still viciously fighting with all their might against the ultrabeests. Or more specifically, they were still fighting with all their might against the three that were currently actively attacking them while the remaining ten continued to stand idly by the arena entrance that they'd used and watch their increasingly bloodied and bruised compatriots do battle with the increasingly exhausted and battle weary royals.

"You should give up now and let death come swiftly to you while you still can," the leader of the ultrabeests stated in its irksomely smug deep voice, an arrogant grin on its pale white face and its yellow eyes agleam. "After all, your deaths are inevitable in this battle, so you might as well make it easier for yourselves."

"You clearly do not know anything about the conviction of a true chieftain then," Tawaba grunted, still locked in combat with his opponent. "For a true chieftain of my tribe never gives up in active combat."

"If you'd rather die the long way, then so be it," the ultrabeest leader snorted, a seemingly even more gleeful look now on its face. "After all, a longer battle means more entertainment."

"Yeah!" The nine other ultrabeests standing with the leader yelled heartily in unison. The three ultrabeests actively fighting, meanwhile, hissed and chuckled maniacally while still actively attacking. Mumbyo's opponent, in particular, couldn't seem to contain its glee as it began to become increasingly swift and vicious in its attempts at swinging its clawed hands at the young man.

Mumbyo growled, gritting his teeth and keeping his hands tight around the handle of his sword as he furiously worked to defend himself from the creature's furious blows. At the same time, he directed a brief annoyed glance at the various wounds he'd already inflicted upon the monster, bitterly noting once more than just a single one of them would have already long brought down the creature if it hadn't had such an insane pain tolerance.

Then he thought to himself. "It has high tolerance for pain," he thought to himself. He took another close look at the ultrabeest he was fighting and managed to take note of how he hadn't cut it anywhere near its heart. "But does that necessarily mean it's unkillable?" He was starting to get an idea on a way to defeat his opponent.

The chance to put this idea to the test came very soon afterward when the creature stepped back, lifting both fists in the air as if preparing to slam them down on Mumbyo's head. In that instant, Mumbyo reacted swiftly, jabbing his sword straight into the area where he was certain the ultrabeest's heart would be located. The tip of the blade went clean through to the point of bursting out of the creature's back. Feeling no pain from this, the creature began to lean forward for the sake of its planned blow, allowing its body to ride down the blade in the process. But Mumbyo was smart, and he proceeded to use the beast's own forward leaning momentum against it so as to lift it and his sword skyward. From there, he worked with all his might to continue holding the sword skyward as the now very angry ultrabeest thrashed and flailed in a futile attempt to still strike him from its current position.

For what felt like an eternity, all the others present in the arena gaped at the scene, Tawaba, Nyota, and their respective opponents briefly halting their own battles as they observed. Mumbyo's ultrabeest opponent bellowed in rage, snapping its teeth, swinging its horned head, and flailing its clawed hands and hoofed feet uselessly as it tried desperately to strike at Mumbyo, who stood his ground and continued working with all his might to hold the monstrous creature skyward on his sword as high as possible. Eventually, the ultrabeest started to slow in its movements, its breathing becoming increasingly haggard and infrequent before it finally went still.

No sooner had the ultrabeest finally gone limp and died when Mumbyo finally lost his footing. With a slip, he landed on his back, the entire dead ultrabeest landing upon him and leaving him pinned to the arena floor with only his head and feet poking out from under the corpse. As Tawaba, Nyota, and the ultrabeests continued to watch, Mumbyo seemed to have trouble getting himself out from under the dead ultrabeest. He grunted and groaned as he worked laboriously to try to get the large dead creature off of him, emphasis on 'try'. "Good grief, this thing is heavy," he hissed.

In that instant, the ultrabeest that had been battling Nyota bellowed, a maniacal look in its eyes as it gazed towards the out of commission Mumbyo. It hissed with bloodthirsty joy, its fanged and tusked jaws gaping open and drooling, its claws at the ready, and its yellow eyes agleam with evil joy. But Nyota had been quick to react immediately after her opponent broke off away from her to go after her brother, and she vaulted over the charging ultrabeest in time to land right in between it and her brother. From there, positioned inches away from where her brother was positioned, she turned around and jabbed her sword towards the monster. By sheer luck, her blade went right into the charging ultrabeest's gaping mouth, the sharp tip going out through the back of its head and causing the helmet it was wearing to dangle upon the very end of said tip.

The ultrabeest jerked to a stop, howling with its eyes closed in what sounded, much to the shock of the three tribal warriors and apparent horror of the other ultrabeests, like a cry of pain. Nyota stood her ground, keeping her sword in its current position even as her opponent howled and screamed in clear agony while futilely trying to pull itself free. Only when the creature had started to utter its last breaths did it finally wrench itself free of the blade, managing in the process to dislodge one of its tusks, which in turn ended up landing point first into Nyota's ankle.

Nyota shrieked from the pain of this unexpected stabbing, dropping her sword onto the arena floor as she fell on her backside near the dead ultrabeest already lying upon her brother. The ultrabeest that she herself had killed landed on its back, dead before impact. Hissing in pain, Nyota reflexively placed her hands upon her stabbed ankle and the fang still positioned there, eyes clenched shut and teeth gritted.

All the ultrabeests gaped at the scene, seemingly legitimately stunned that at this turn of events. Tawaba, however, found himself taking careful note of several details even as he himself continued to gape at the now very much dead ultrabeest that his daughter had stabbed in the mouth. Specifically, he took note of both how the ultrabeest that his daughter had now successfully killed had seemingly felt pain for once at the moment of its fatal injury, and how all the ultrabeests were very heavily armored around their heads and necks compared to the rest of their bodies. "Their heads," he thought to himself. "Those must be the only places in which they can feel pain."

The sound of a bloodthirsty bellowing drew his attention out of his thoughts, and he looked in the direction of the noise to see that the ultrabeest he himself had been fighting was now starting to charge straight towards both of his incapacitated children. In that instant, Tawaba reacted almost instantaneously. "You will not harm them," he thought furiously to himself as he rushed towards the charging ultrabeest from behind, eventually jumping in the air and leaping towards it right as it was inches away from reaching the now horrified Nyota and Mumbyo. Already he knew exactly what he was going to do.

"HEY!" He roared as he lunged through the air, his sword drawn back and at the ready to slice. The ultrabeest jerked to a halt and started turning its head to look behind it. But in the process, it allowed the base of its neck to become exposed and no longer protected by its armor. And just like that, its fate was sealed as Tawaba's mighty sword sliced clean through, beheading the monster.

Tawaba landed masterfully on both feet between his incapacitated son and daughter and the now halted and wide-eyed monster. Then he turned around, still in battle ready position, just in time for the still wide-eyed monster's head to slide off its body and land on the arena floor, the now headless body crumpling to the floor as well seconds later. Tawaba gazed intently at this, breathing heavily from both exhaustion and triumph. Then he looked up, his children following his gaze, and they stared intently at the ten remaining ultrabeests, all of which were gaping silently their way.

Then the eyes of all ten of the remaining monsters narrowed, with all but the apparent leader snarling angrily. "I will admit," said the leader. "You've done a lot better against us than I expected." He rammed his fists together. "Clearly, it is now high time we stepped up our game." His nine remaining underlings snorted in agreement, clenching their own fists and baring their fangs similarly to their leader. And then, in a sight that made Tawaba, Nyota, and Mumbyo's hearts sink, all ten of the remaining ultrabeests started slowly stomping their way towards them at once.

. . . . .

"I summon the power of Msitara!" N'jobu roared, his staff glowing with rainbow energy. At that moment, he and the six warriors that served as Tawaba's inner tribal council were furiously battling against the various Chang goons, Wildebeest Society underlings, and wildebeest hybrid soldiers that dared try to challenge them in the corridor where they were currently positioned, and the shaman had just now channeled his shamanistic powers to summon vicarious aid from the tribe's forest goddess. And immediately after he'd made his call upon Msitara's power, he slammed his staff on the ground, bottom end first.

With a burst of rainbow light, a rainbow aura shaped like a leopard, Msitara's sacred animal, appeared in the air between the shaman and his current opponents. The aura turned its head towards the large squadron of wildebeest hybrids that were currently daring to challenge the shaman, all of which were now backing away in fright, narrowed its eyes, and roared; at which point all of the hybrids directly in front of it found themselves getting tangled up in thick tree roots that eventually converged together to the point of transforming the luckless mooks into small trees. The leopard aura faded away immediately afterward.

The sound of bellowing and thunderous footsteps coming from behind him caused the shaman to turn his head in time to see another large squadron of wildebeest hybrids charging their way towards him. He spun his staff clockwise in the air, now having it encased with rings of orange light. "Hear me Hofukara," he yelled, now invoking the power of the tribe's fear goddess. "For I need your aid!" And with another slam of his staff, a large orange crocodile-shaped aura formed in the air between him and the incoming hybrids, hissing and snarling as it directed its cruel gaze their way. And no sooner was the entire charging squadron of hybrids caught in the light of the aura beast's gaze when they all literally jolted to a halt, wide eyed and literally paralyzed with terror.

With the hybrids now incapacitated in this manner, the crocodile aura vanished into thin air; at which point N'jobu lifted his staff once more, which was now glowing with an unnerving blood red aura. "Now Mashindano," he growled, now wishing to channel the power of the tribe's war god. "I bid you to strike my enemies down!" With the slam of his staff that followed, a blood red rhino-shaped aura took form in the area that had been previously occupied by the fearsome crocodile aura, snorted, pawed its left front foot, and then violently swung its horned head in various directions while bellowing and snorting with rage. And with each slash of the aura's horn, brutal gashes appeared upon the bodies of the paralyzed hybrids as if they were being sliced at by an invisible blade. The hybrids could only bellow in agony as they were mercilessly slaughtered where they stood.

At the same time that N'jobu was laying waste to the wildebeest hybrids, the six warriors that served as Tawaba's governing councilmen were viciously doing battle against their own opponents. Two of them fought with swords, one with a heavy club, one with a large ax, one with a bow and arrows, and the final with a long thick war spear. And naturally, they were all indiscriminately slicing up, shooting, jabbing, chopping up, and smashing the hybrids, while also making extra certain to always use their shields to knock out any and all human opponents that came their way.

At one point, one of the hybrids that ended up doing battle with the spear man got lucky, managing to break the spear in two. The hybrids quickly pressed their advantage, picking the now weaponless man up and throwing him clean through the door to a nearby room. Unfortunately for them, this action soon quite effectively cancelled out their earlier disarming him by virtue of the room in question turning out to be a weapons chamber. And they found this out the painful way when all seven of them were stabbed through their hearts in a row at once by a metallic techno spear that the man grabbed that turned out to alternately function as a grappling hook. And before he left, he managed to also notice what appeared to be both an electronic quadruple bladed ax and a quiver of specially designed electronic arrows that he realized could probably be useful for the archer and axman amongst his five fellow councilmen.

N'jobu meanwhile, continued laying waste to the hybrids even now still coming after him with his shamanistic powers. "It is said that the mind can be one's greatest weapon," he said as he began to channel the power of the tribe's wisdom goddess, his staff now glowing with an ethereal pink energy, all while he had a squadron of hybrids charging towards him from all four corridors surrounding him. "Allow these beasts Busari, to know firsthand the tremendous power of your own mind." He slammed the bottom end of the staff on the floor, at which point a gigantic ostrich shaped aura of the same ethereal mind energy that the staff had been glowing with to take shape directly above him. With a shriek and single mighty flap of its wings, the aura sent a web of pink energy tendrils bursting in all directions. The hybrids all which jolted in surprise as the tendrils of mind energy pierced their heads straight to their brains. From there, the hybrids could only grunt and wheeze in discomfort as their own comparatively paltry minds were completely overwhelmed by the flood of impossibly strong willpower that suddenly began to erupt within their brains. And within moments, the power proved too much for them to handle, and they all lost consciousness, at which point they all crumpled to the floor like sacks of potatoes once N'jobu had withdrawn the mind energy tendrils and the ostrich aura had dissipated.

A comparatively smaller squadron of hybrids soon attempted to charge at him from the directly in front of him, seemingly paying no heed to their unconscious brethren as they proceeded to seemingly trample them underfoot in their rush. N'jobu pointed his staff at them, the long wooden pole now starting to become enshrouded with a noxious looking green mist as the shaman began to channel the power of the tribe's deity of poison and healing. "I beseech you Ugonjwara," he hissed, his eyes narrowed in concentration, "to unleash your wrath now upon these vermin."

No sooner had the shaman said all this when a giraffe-sized aura of poisonous gas shaped like a gaboon viper took shape directly in front of the shaman, hissed at the charging hybrids, and then sent a gigantic stream of poisonous gas spewing from its mouth. The hybrids had no time to stop or dodge, and thus were engulfed by the gas. By the time the gas dissipated, and the aura vanished, the latest round of luckless hybrids attempting to attack N'jobu had all suffocated to death from the noxious vapors.

No sooner had _this_ shamanistic spell ended when the six councilmen finally arrived in the same area as N'jobu, all of them looking slightly roughed up, but not so much as to be unable to fight. The man with the ax took a good long look at all the dead, unconscious, or transmogrified into trees hybrids positioned around the shaman, and then back at said shaman. "I'm guessing everything is alright here?"

"Aye," said N'jobu, nodding his head up and down in the affirmative. "There was a lot of enemies I had to take on, and I highly doubt I can channel too much more spiritual energy without needing some serious rest in the near future, but I'm still standing."

"We should probably see if any of the others need any help now that we're done," said the archer amongst the group.

"Agreed," said one of the swordsmen.

"A good idea," said N'jobu. He grabbed onto a talisman around his neck, lifting it up so he could get a good look at it. The gemstone the talisman consisted of was carved into what appeared to be the shape of an eye. "Eye of Bahati," he said, now wishing to invoke the power of the tribe's trickster god. "Allow me to witness my allies so that I may know that they are safe." The talisman glowed with golden energy, followed by N'jobu's own eyes glowing with a similar color. After a few minutes, he nodded his head, golden glow still in his eyes. "So far, all our allies are handling themselves well…"

His eyes then widened in horror, all while still glowing. "Except for Tawaba. He and his children need help. And quick!" Immediately after he said this, the charm wore off, and his eyes resumed their normal color.

In a flash, the six councilmen tensed up and readied their weapons.

"Our chieftain needs help you say?" Said the man with a club.

"Then we're his men," growled one of the two swordsmen.

"Aye," N'jobu agreed. He summoned a glowing image of the eye of Bahati upon his staff. "My friend is in grave danger," he stated. "Grant us swift passage to him Bahati, so that I may aid him." The eye image burst into golden dust, which then coalesced into a gorilla sized aura of golden light shaped like a baboon, which then clasped its hands together before just as swiftly pulling them apart, causing a glowing golden portal to take shape between it and the seven warriors. No sooner had the portal fully opened when N'jobu and the six councilmen leaped through, eager to save their king and his children, the shaman already preparing yet another spell to unleash upon arrival at wherever the summoned portal was about to take them.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the pocket dimension that Juris had transported himself and Raven to, the two former Azarath dwellers were engaged in what could only be described as a rather vicious 'wizard's duel'. At that particular moment, Juris was sending mighty jets of flame from his hands towards Raven while the half demoness viciously worked to defend herself with bursts of shadowy energy.

"Why won't you die?!" Juris howled, his blue eyes blazing with hate as he fired yet another wave of flames at the half demoness, only for said half demoness to once again dodge.

"Do you want the short answer?" Raven growled, her teeth sharpened into fangs and her now four eyes glowing solid red. "Or the long one?" Juris responded by letting out an incoherent howl of rage before then shooting out an even bigger wave of fire towards Raven. This attack, naturally, proved no more effective than the previous one; for this time, Raven simply summoned an entire forcefield around herself instead of attempting to levitate or teleport herself out of the way.

The sorceress was very quick to react once this wave of fire had finally gone out, dismissing her shield and swiftly yelling out her mantra. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" With a crackling noise, a bolt of black shadowy lightning burst from the air and knocked the disgraced monk backwards. Juris hadn't even landed yet before the sorceress started summoning a large volley's worth of bowling ball sized orbs of shadowy energy. And by the time Juris finally got to his feet, this volley had already started getting sent hurtling towards him.

The disgraced monk cursed and summoned a forcefield of white light just in time to successfully shield himself from the rapid onslaught of shadowy orbs. When the volley came to what appeared to be a lull, Juris dismissed his forcefield, only to then curse at the sight of one of the 12 columns rocketing rapidly towards him while encased in shadowy energy. With the makeshift projectile already moving too fast for him to summon another shield in time, he resorted to blasting it off course with a burst of lightning.

Before long, the ginger haired former monk turned Wildebeest Society leader found himself continuously firing off bursts of lightning and flames in order to adequately defend himself when Raven proceeded to use all 12 of the columns as makeshift projectiles and bludgeons against him. It was only by sheer luck that he was able to successfully avoid getting hit by any of the columns over the course of this vicious onslaught. By the time he'd finally managed to reduce all the columns to dust, there was just enough of a lull in the fight for him to successfully fire off a bolt of lightning towards Raven, which struck her in the chest and sent her flying backward.

With considerable effort, Raven managed to get back on her feet, groaning and hissing from the pain of the electrical shock against her. She had to admit, this battle was certainly proving quite difficult.

"I have to hand it to you Gem," said Juris as he watched her get back on her feet, using a minor healing spell on himself in the process. "You've proven yourself a considerably tougher opponent against me than I expected. And I was already expecting you to be difficult to kill." The sorceress snarled, her eyes back in their violet human-like form instead of their crimson red demonic form.

"How is he even still standing?" She thought to herself. "Or able to continue casting so much magic? He's not a born mage, so that amulet should have had its energy depleted by now and unable to allow him to use any more spells at this point for at least an hour. Hell, he should have run out in the middle of that onslaught I just tried to subject him to."

"I will admit that I'm lucky to still be standing."

Juris nodded his head, a look of grudging respect on his face. "In fact, if this were going on with me still in my original body, I would no doubt have run out of energy and been reduced to a bloody mess by now. But fortunately, in my current circumstances, I have an advantage I wouldn't have had in my original body."

He let a grin come on his face, clearly feeling very proud to get the chance to say what he now wished to say. "For you see, even though the man whose body I'm now possessing has had his mind completely absorbed into my own and effectively been killed, his soul remains trapped inside this body so long as I myself stay inside it. And with his soul still trapped in his body while I use it, his vitality is mixed with my own, allowing me to have it symbiotically bound to the energy of my amulet in a continuous circle of energy exchange. Thus, as long as I continue to maintain control over the amulet, I'll be able to continue using magic long after most magic users who wield the same kind of magic as I would have either succumbed to excessive channeling of their life force or exhausted the natural magical energy present in their magical items."

Raven narrowed her eyes upon hearing this. "This could be problematic," she thought to herself. If what he claimed was indeed true, then he'd inevitably outlast her if the battle continued to go on long enough for her to get exhausted. Then she thought carefully over one particular comment he'd made in his recent words, and then directed a surreptitious glance at the amulet around the disgraced monk's neck. "I wonder…"

"But even so," Juris then stated. "Considering how I could very well get careless and make a costly mistake of I let this battle continue to get drawn out, especially since you are now arguably proving even tougher than I was already expecting you to be, it is probably best that I go ahead and make this quick."

In a flash, Raven tensed up, already preparing herself for another attack. "Azarath, Metrion, Zin…"

With a snap of Juris's fingers, a large glowing orange rune materialized in the air in front of Raven's face. The rune in question looked somewhat like a stylized tongue with a pharaoh style crook and flail drawn in an x-shape across it. And at the same time the rune materialized in front of Raven, a flash of orange light suddenly appeared over her mouth. And by the time this light and the rune had vanished, an invisible force had suddenly taken hold of her mouth and was now holding it shut! "HHHMMMPPPHHH!" Raven shrieked, reflexively reaching up towards her mouth in surprise, caught completely off guard by the unexpected invisible force that was now holding her mouth shut and effectively gagging her.

"An Azarathian silencing rune," Juris explained, smug wolf-like grin still on his face as he gazed at the surprised half demoness. "But one specially designed and focused on explicitly silencing a person instead of preventing people from hearing any noise coming from a specific area. And it's entirely likely that, if I'd known in advance that you would turn out to be as tough as you've now proven yourself to be, shutting you up with that rune would have probably been the very first thing I did at the very start of this duel."

Completely without warning, he summoned a whip of white light and lashed it towards Raven. The brilliant white lash very swiftly coiled tightly around her abdomen, pinning her arms to her sides. "MMMPPPHHH?!" Raven shrieked as she found herself so suddenly restrained. Then she was equally abruptly yanked towards Juris when he rapidly pulled it back. "GGGNNNGGG!" She screamed as this happened, only coming to a stop when she suddenly found Juris literally right in front of her while having his left hand clasped around her throat and holding her up above the ground while simultaneously dismissing his 'light whip' and drawing out his broadsword so fast as to seemingly be causing it to appear from out of thin air.

"Hhhrrrgggmmm, wwwrrrggghhh," Raven gurgled, eyes closed and mouth straining against the magic keeping it shut as she coughed and choked from Juris's tight grip around her throat, her feet uselessly kicking and flailing above the ground.

Juris chuckled. "You sound so pathetic now. But nonetheless, I suppose that, paradoxically enough, I'll now be ending your misery just as much as I'll be ending a large amount of such for Azarath and the rest of the universe." He drew his sword back, ready to thrust it straight through Raven's heart. "Any last words?"

Raven's violet eyes snapped open, seemingly dazzling with fright and horror as she realized just how close she was to legitimately dying, and almost a full 9 months after she'd been resurrected from a considerably more gruesome death. She hurriedly wracked her brain. There had to be something she could do! But then she noticed just how close she was in proximity to her would-be killer, particularly in regard to the amulet around his neck. In that instant, her eyes narrowed into a vicious glare. She knew exactly what to do, and also just what she would say in response to Juris's recent question.

"Uh'v gggttt yyyrrr hhmmhhllhhtt," she grunted, her words muffled by the invisible force sealing her mouth.

Juris raised his eyebrow, clearly confused. "What did you say?"

"Uh'v gggttt yyyrrr hhmmhhllhhtt," Raven grunted, her eyes now blazing with irritation over her invisible gag.

Juris sighed. "I suppose I should have expected this when I asked if you had any last words." He shook his head side to side. "Alright, I suppose it won't hurt to let you have your voice back for one last minute or so." He sheathed his sword and snapped his fingers, causing the very same rune that had just been used to gag Raven briefly materializing in front of her face again before then once again disappearing, the invisible force keeping her mouth shut vanishing alongside it. She coughed and gasped reflexively the instant her mouth finally burst open. Once she was finished, she very abruptly looked Juris right in the eyes. "I've got your amulet."

The disgraced monk had just enough time to widen his eyes in confusion before the half demoness very abruptly reached up and snatched the amulet off of his neck, snapping the cord that had kept it in place. He barely even had time to notice this before he was suddenly blasted back and away from the sorceress by a burst of shadowy lightning fired from her right hand, the sorceress herself levitating even further away from him the instant his hand was no longer around her throat.

Desperate to get his amulet back, Juris hurriedly got back to his feet, only for his eyes to widen again in horror at the sight of Raven very ominously lifting the amulet skyward. "Stop!" The sorceress threw the amulet down to the ground, shattering it. "NO!"

The sound of what appeared to be thunder boomed in the sky around the two combatants, and cracks appeared in the 'walls' of the pocket dimension with solid white light shining out of them. Immediately realizing what this meant, Raven hurriedly tried to summon a shadowy portal, realizing how unpleasant things could get if the pocket dimension, now apparently on the verge of complete destruction, were to evaporate from existence while she herself was still in it. "Azarath, Metrion…"

Her eyes widened when she happened to catch sight of Juris unexpectedly drawing out a revolver from his belt and fire a shot towards her. She had only just barely enough time to summon a force field in time for the bullet to be harmlessly deflected. But it was at that exact same moment that an explosion of white light suddenly erupted from the center of the rapidly deteriorating pocket dimension, engulfing the entire area and sending both the disgraced monk and the half demoness rocketing backward through the veil in opposite directions.

. . . . .

Tawaba stood tall and firm in front of both of his incapacitated children, his sword and shield raised and ready, as he watched the ten remaining ultrabeests steadily approach him. The creatures seemed very much not in the mood to mess around, their fists clenched, yellow eyes narrowed, and their claws, fangs, and horns seemingly agleam in the light of the ceiling lamps as they approached.

"You've done well," said the lead ultrabeest as he and his remaining ten cohorts slowly made their way over to the tribal chieftain king and his incapacitated son and daughter. "Better than we expected. Especially since you have managed to figure out the secret of just where we are still capable of feeling pain. But I dare you now to try to kill all of us with that knowledge before at least one of us manages to take you down."

"Go ahead and try," Tawaba growled, doing everything he could to avoid letting himself sound as tired as he felt. "I just might surprise you…again."

Despite himself, the lead ultrabeest let out a low chuckle, seemingly still maintaining a grudging respect for Tawaba despite his anger. "We'll see how proud you are once we're done with you." He pointed his clawed finger at the seemingly doomed tribal royal family. "Enough talk! We attack now!"

As if in direct response to the lead ultrabeest's shout, a vortex of glowing golden light abruptly materialized in between the monsters and the tribal royals, with none other than N'jobu and the six councilmen lunging out of it and landing right in front of the surprised ultrabeests. The shaman pointed his staff at the creatures, the long wooden pole seemingly cocooned in tendrils of wind. "Back away foul beasts!" N'jobu roared. "The great god Hewaraka commands it!"

Almost immediately after the shaman said this, what appeared to be an elephant-sized zebra made entirely out of wind burst into existence directly in front of the staff's tip and charged towards the ultrabeests, a gigantic gust of hurricane force winds trailing along behind it. This attack burst right across the ultrabeests, sending them rocketing backward before all coming to a crashing halt in unison against the walls directly on either side of the entrance in which they'd first come into the arena.

The monsters didn't even have time to get up after crumpling to the floor before N'jobu started channeling another spell, his staff now enshrouded in what looked like thick brown dust. "Behold the wrath of the great goddess Duniana!" He slammed the staff's bottom end down against the arena floor. The ground started to shake, and a tall giraffe made out of dust and stone rose from the cracking floor. Upon fully rising out of the ground, the giraffe aura reared its neck backwards, mouth opening up and revealing a vivid green glow, which it then spat out as a large green spark that exploded directly above the ultrabeests, sending a veritable avalanche worth of boulders raining down upon them. The creatures could only shriek in surprise as they were all buried under the stones, the giraffe aura bursting out of existence the instant all ten of the monsters were completely covered.

With the ultrabeests now out of commission, N'jobu and the councilmen got straight to work on helping their leader and his children, with the councilmen working together to get Mumbyo out from under the dead ultrabeest he'd killed and extract the displaced fang from Nyota's ankle before N'jobu then used a shamanistic healing spell to restore energy to all three of the royals while also preventing Nyota's wound from experiencing further bleeding. "You'll have to keep weight off your ankle for a while," the shaman explained once the aura of Ugonjwara had faded away. "But you'll at least now have the chance to be able to use that foot at all in the future."

"I suppose that's fair," Nyota stated. She nodded her head. "I suppose, in a way, that we can consider this karma against me."

"Indeed," N'jobu agreed, a firm look on his face. "After all, how can we not be certain that those beasts we've just saved you from aren't what our scientist friend had wanted to mention before you left to join us?"

Nyota nodded bitterly, silently accepting the criticism. The shaman had similarly criticized her impulsively choosing to deny Dr. Rookwood the chance at telling that one last minute bit of knowledge in favor of not keeping the raiding party waiting for the sake of knowledge on something that she'd overconfidently believed they'd already be capable of handling anyway thanks to the knowledge they'd already been given, and she'd been much more quick to brush it off. But now, after what she, her brother, and father had just undergone, she was now humbled enough to accept this criticism now that it had been given to her twice, and after seeming proof of something that had indeed very nearly proven her and her family's downfall.

But then the sound of rumbling and snorting came from the pile of boulders, and all the assembled tribal folk turned their heads in time to see said pile quivering as if something were trying to burst out from underneath. And sure enough, much to the surprise of all ten of the tribes folk, all ten of the ultrabeests burst out from the boulders, battered and bruised, but still very much alive…and now looking downright _murderous_ with fury. In that instant, N'jobu and the six tribal councilmen got themselves into battle ready positions. It was clear that it would be necessary to engage in further combat against these monsters if they were to get themselves, their leader, and his children to safety.

The lead ultrabeest snarled, yellow eyes blazing with rage before he then pointed his clawed finger at the newly arrived warriors that had just subjected him and his comrades to the indignity they'd just gotten out of. "KILL THEM!" With bellows of rage, the 9 other ultrabeests charged angrily towards the tribes folk in obedience. In a flash, the six councilmen split off into separate directions, with six of the charging ultrabeests promptly splitting off to follow them. The remaining three ultrabeests barreled straight towards N'jobu, who stood firm in front of Tawaba, Mumbyo, and Nyota.

This trio of ultrabeests were about halfway to reaching the shaman's position before he then pointed his staff, now enshrouded in shadowy mist, straight at them. "Now Kivuru!" He yelled, now wishing to channel the power of the tribe's god of the night. "Unleash your might upon these foul monsters!" In a burst of smoke, a rhino-sized hyena made out of shadowy energy took shape directly in front of the shaman, snarled at the incoming ultrabeests, and then spat out an orb of darkness from its mouth that crashed explosively into the creatures, sending them flying backward.

As this was happening, the two swordsmen amongst Tawaba's council were the first to end up at the point of dueling against the ultrabeests pursuing them. And it wasn't long before they both discovered the hard way the same unpleasant surprise about the creatures that Tawaba and his children had learned in similar fashion. "That blow should have made it left it in too much agony to continue fighting," one of the warriors yelled when he ended up having to unexpectedly duck a haymaker from his opponent's right fist as well as block a swing of its left hand claws with his sword almost immediately after slashing it across the area where its heart was located.

"They are like demons," hissed his fellow swordsmen immediately after just barely dodging a charging horn attack from his own opponent almost immediately after dealing what should have been a pain induced crippling slash wound across an important vein in said opponent's right leg. "What kind of mad man would willingly create such abominations as things incapable of feeling pain?!"

The other four councilmen, themselves currently either actively dueling with their respective opponents or still trying to get into what they felt would be ideal positions for such duels, felt their hearts sink nervously upon hearing their comrades' words. But fortunately, Tawaba was quick to yell some words they were all too happy to hear.

"Hit them in the heads!" The tribe chieftain king yelled. "Their heads and necks are the only areas where they can feel pain! Strike them there!"

"NO!" The lead ultrabeest roared upon hearing his kind's only proper weak spot get broadcast to his comrades' newest opponents.

"As you wish my king," said the archer, who had at this point already shot an impressively large number of electronic looking arrows from a quiver he'd been given from the weapons chamber upstairs into his own still advancing opponent, drew out his 50th arrow from this new quiver and shot it directly into his charging opponent's right eye. The beast howled in agony, reflexively rearing back and starting to hop backwards on a single foot as a result of the sudden pain of this new injury. The archer was swift to take advantage of the creature's incapacitated state, firing two more arrows into its neck, followed by a final three into its chest to join the 49 other arrows already fired into there as well as in the creature's stomach, shoulders, and back. After what felt like an eternity, the luckless ultrabeest collapsed onto its knees, gurgling and groaning in pain and exhaustion as the black mamba venom contained within all 55 of the arrows slowly entered its system entirely, before then keeling over and falling flat on its belly, its limbs sprawled, its single undamaged eye turning blank and opaque, and its mouth snapping open in a final reflex action and releasing what looked like some sort of drool related to the venom now in its system as it finally died.

The spear wielder amongst the councilmen was the next to capitalize on the information his king had given him, leaping upon the upper edge of the sealed up arena entrance directly opposite the single unblocked one and pointing his electronic grappling spear towards his own still charging opponent before pressing the button that caused the spear tip to go rocketing straight towards the beast. The rapidly flying tip jabbed clean through the creature's open mouth and the back of its head before then coming to a stop in the wall to the left of the unblocked entrance, the lead ultrabeest having only just barely managed to jump aside in time to avoid getting skewered himself. But the spear man wasn't finished, as he proceeded to then jump from his position and let the retracting capability of the cord yank him towards his skewered and agonized opponent, allowing him to deal the beast a flying double kick to the chest with both his feet before then letting go and landing perfectly while the still rocketing away ultrabeest came to a crashing halt against the wall that the spear's tip had lodged into. From there, the monster went limp.

The two swordsmen were the next to properly capitalize on their opponents' weakness, with the first one proceeding to first completely slice off his opponent's right arm right as it was attempting to swing the claws on that arm towards him, causing the beast to start stumbling off balance just long enough to be easily dispatched with the swordsman's subsequent upwards swing that sliced clear through its neck, decapitating it just like its compatriot that Tawaba himself had killed. The seconds swordsmen, meanwhile, first managed to time himself so that he was able to jump right over his opponent when it attempted to charge at him with its horns, knock it into falling on its face when his feet landed on its back and he used this landing as a means to propel himself forward, and then jabbed his sword straight through the base of its neck right as it was about to try to get up, leaving it effectively pinned to the floor. The beast had just enough time to close its eyes and roar in pain before the councilmen grabbed its horns and rapidly pulled on them in a way that allowed him to turn its head a complete 180, breaking its neck. The beast jolted into silence, eyes widened in a final shocked gaze, before it then gurgled, its eyes rolled to the back of its head, and it went limp.

The axman was the next to dispatch his opponent. Waiting until literally just the right moment, he swung his procured electronic ax at the creature, dealing a perfect blow straight into its chest, taking full advantage immediately afterward of the long metallic pole connecting the four blades, two on each end, to hold the monster at bay. The creature bellowed apoplectically and uselessly swung its clawed hands at the air between it and the triumphantly grinning tribal warrior. But its anger very swiftly turned to shock when, while still keeping one hand on one half of the connecting pole, the warrior pressed a button in the very center of said pole that allowed the second half of the pole to detach. And from there, the ultrabeest had just enough time to grunt in surprised horror upon then managing to catch sight of the warrior draw back the newly detached second half, complete with the remaining two blades, before it was then decapitated by the subsequent swing of said other half.

The last of the ultrabeests to go up against one of the councilmen fared no better than its brethren, as it first managed to find itself off balance when its club wielding opponent managed to duck under its attempted x-shaped slash and slide between its legs while it was still charging. Then it ended up being sent collapsing onto its stomach by a devastatingly strong airborne slam against its back from the warrior's club. And from there, as a result of the blow ending up strong enough to completely fracture its spine, the beast was reduced to helplessly bellowing and howling in fear and confusion over its suddenly being unable to move before another bone crushing blow to its head finally put it out of its misery.

At the same time the six councilmen were busy dispatching their own opponents, the three ultrabeests that had dared try to go after N'jobu were similarly dispatched in no less unpleasant fashion as the shaman proceeded to first channel the power of the tribe's river goddess Majiji, summoning an elephant-sized hippo made of water that then exploded into an airborne river that engulfed the three hybrids and lifted them into the air before then slamming them down face-first against the arena floor. The three ultrabeests had only _just_ started getting back up on their feet when N'jobu channeled the power of the tribe's thunder god Umemu, summoning an elephant made out of lightning that caused a maelstrom of even more lightning to come raining down on the luckless monsters by rearing up and trumpeting skyward. The monsters were still panting and gasping from the pain brought upon them by _that_ attack when N'jobu finished them off by channeling the power of the tribe's fire god Motowaba, summoning a gigantic lion made out of fire that then proceeded, with a roar, to cause the three hybrids to spontaneously burst into flames. From there, the ultrabeests could only helplessly bellow and uselessly flail their arms around in random directions before the viciously strong fire proceeded to rapidly reduce them to ash, very unnervingly causing their agonized bellows to cease very abruptly as opposed to letting said bellows end naturally.

With only the lead ultrabeest now remaining, all the tribal folk present turned their heads to face it. From the look on its face, it was clear that the deaths of all its brethren had now left it even angrier than it had already been. "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" The monster roared, its yellow eyes almost literally glowing with unadulterated fury. "AN OUTRAGE! THIS WAS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT A GLORIOUS BATTLE AGAINST A VILE DEMON ALONGSIDE A GLORIOUS WILDEBEEST HYBRID CHILD LEADER! NOT DIE WORTHLESS DEATHS AGAINST A BUNCH OF FILTHY MUD-MEN SUCH AS YOU!"

N'jobu raised his eyebrow, uncertain as to what the lead ultrabeest could possibly be talking about, but already having a feeling that it somehow hardly mattered at this point. "Whatever you believed to be your destiny was little more than lies and empty promises." He gestured towards the bloodied corpses and heaps of ash that remained of the other 12 ultrabeests. "Look no further than the remains of your brethren to find the truth. Whatever your vile creator may have claimed, he was wrong! You and your kin are destined to die today, and your creator and the entire society of wildebeests he has built shall die today with you!"

"Will see about that," the lead ultrabeest hissed, his yellow eyes narrowing murderously as he leaned forward, his fists clenched, claws bared, teeth gritted, and left foot pawing the ground as if in preparation to charge. "DIE," he then roared as he very abruptly started barreling straight towards N'jobu.

The shaman was unphased, lifting his staff skyward and spinning it clockwise multiple times, a shroud of gray mist forming around it as he channeled one final spell. "You shall now face judgment!" N'jobu howled. "From the fearsome death goddess Mzukukara herself!"

With a burst of gray light, an elephant-sized vulture made out of gray light materialized directly between the shaman and the charging ultrabeest, a savage look on its face as it lifted its wings, pointed its taloned feet at the monster, and shrieked at it with glowing eyes. Caught in the light of the aura's gaze, the lead ultrabeest very abruptly jerked to a stop, rearing back in surprise and confusion as he was very abruptly turned to stone, becoming fully encased in time for his final surprised bellow to cease in mid-shout very abruptly. And no sooner was the lead ultrabeest completely petrified when the shaman gave the staff one last spin and slammed the bottom end down upon the arena floor, causing both the vulture aura _and_ the newly petrified lead ultrabeest to explode, the former bursting into a shower of misty vapors while the latter shattered into countless stony fragments that crumbled to dust immediately after touching the arena floor.

N'jobu collapsed to his knees, panting and gasping. That last spell, strongly recommended to only be called upon as an absolute last resort, had taken an impossibly large amount of energy out of him. Quite frankly, he was now lucky to even still be alive himself after having cast it.

Tawaba placed his hand on the shaman's shoulder, clearly concerned. "Are you alright my friend?"

"I'll be fine," N'jobu panted. "I just need rest, and I should be able to recover as long as I avoid expending too much more energy in the near future.

The ground seemed to start rumbling, almost as if an earthquake were on the verge of happening. The assembled high-ranking tribes folk all looked nervously at each other. "What was that?" Mumbyo asked.

"No idea," said N'jobu. "But I get the feeling that we will very much not want to find out just yet; especially not down here."

"He is right," Tawaba agreed. He gestured towards the lift that he himself had used to enter the area alongside Mumbyo and Nyota. "Come on," he ordered. "We must get back up to the surface now. And depending on just how things are up there, we may very well need to evacuate this entire building in the very near future."

. . . . .

Raven managed, with considerable effort, to get back on her feet after coming to a crashing landing in what turned out to be a corridor within the Wildebeest Society main lab building, hissing and groaning in discomfort from the hardly comfortable impact she'd just had after being sent flying through the veil between dimensions by the implosion of Juris's pocket dimension. Juris himself was nowhere in sight; and quite frankly, she wasn't entirely certain if the disgraced monk was even alive. She shuddered at the thought of the various unpleasant possibilities that she herself had just now been very lucky to avoid. "Probably should have gotten myself and Juris out of there first before I shattered that amulet," she thought to herself.

The sound of animalistic snarling and growling drew the sorceress's attention, and she looked behind her towards where the noises were coming from. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of a seemingly rather unassuming door. Then she noticed the words on a nearby labeling sign, and her eyes widened in recognition. She and the other formerly captive Titans had been escorted right by this very door while on the way to the laboratory chamber where they'd earlier been imprisoned. And as both indicated by the noises coming from behind that door as well as confirmed by Galtry himself the previous day, this door led to a chamber where all the animals that had been used as test subjects for Galtry and Chang's scheme and were still alive were being kept. And as she continued to hear the creatures within the chamber putting up a rumpus, she managed to also hear various other sounds coming from all directions that indicated a considerable amount of chaos unfolding; which led to her very quickly managing to remember that her recent battle against Juris wasn't the only battle that had been unfolding in the area. And in that instant, she realized that she needed to get moving and see if she could make herself useful now that she was no longer busy battling Juris.

She hurriedly deployed her psychic reach, hurriedly working to make sense of all the chaos, locate her friends, and see where her help would currently be needed most. After noticing a particularly large number of battles and clashes going on, she happened to get a read on Wildebeest, realizing in the process that he appeared to still be stuck in the lab where she had earlier been imprisoned alongside Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire. "Might be a good idea to bust him out of there first," she thought to herself as she prepared to head over to that area. "Regardless of what he was originally designed for, he's my friend now. And he'll certainly make good backup for me if I try to intervene in any of the battles going on…"

Two earthshaking roars split the air, and the sorceress tensed up in alarm as she found herself recognizing both of them. One of the roars she'd heard so many times coming from one of Beast Boy's apparent favorite heavy hitting animal forms that there was no doubt in her mind that it had come from him now. The other one, however, she'd only heard once; and from an animal that she would never have guessed could have possibly been in this lab without it making its presence known considerably earlier…

But then she happened to very briefly brush her mental reach up against what she recognized as Galtry's mind, and her eyes widened at how, for some reason, it now seemed to have several very disturbing similarities to Beast Boy's own mind that she'd known, for a _fact_, should not have possibly been present the way he was the last time she'd seen him. And at the same time, she also managed to get a good look at the current state of Beast Boy's mind, and her eyes widened in horror as she realized how she very nearly didn't even recognize it.

"He's running out of time," she thought to herself in horror. "If he doesn't get that antidote soon, he'll be lost to the virus for good! But how is he to get it with his uncle delaying him…?"

The sound of a lion's roar coming from within the animal test subject holding room, followed by a crocodile's grumbling bellow and an unnaturally bloodthirsty sounding gorilla-like shriek, briefly got her attention off of Beast Boy and what she could only assume was somehow Galtry. She turned her head towards the door, suddenly finding herself thinking of an idea that, at this point, she was far too desperate not to consider.

**And just like that, another chapter finally done! Hope you all find it worth the long wait, will be looking forward to the next one to come, and that you leave plenty of feedback (remember, I need an exact minimum of ONE review for this new chapter before I allow the next completed chapter to be posted; though a larger number of reviews will be much appreciated considering how exhausting it eventually became to write this chapter, not to mention how close I came to outright losing steam for my work). See you later dudes!**

**Coming up Next: All that remains to be accomplished over the course of what remains to unfold for the climax shall now reach their epic conclusions!**


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